The new hockey team that will make the
Glens Falls Civic Center its home in the
2015-16 season and beyond was introduced
Feb. 11 in Glens Falls by the parent team,
the Calgary Flames of the National Hockey
League.
The Adirondack Thunder is the name of
the team that signed a three-year contract in
late January with the Adirondack Civic Center
Coalition, the new owners of the building.
In an unveiling held at The Bullpen in
Glens Falls, the new Thunder brand adorned
several screens throughout the local bar in
front of a crowd of media and members of the
general public. Current Adirondack Flames
and future Adirondack Thunder President
Brian Petrovek unveiled the new name, logo
and color scheme to the public, beginning a
new chapter of professional hockey in Glens
Falls and the Adirondack region.
The new team is part of the East Coast
Hockey League.
The move preserves professional hockey at
the Glens Falls Civic Center amid significant
changes in the American Hockey League,
that contains the Adirondack Flames, who
currently reside in the Glens Falls Civic Center.
The Adirondack Flames are also owned
by the NHL Calgary organization.
“The Thunder brand has become a fixture
in the ECHL and we are excited to be able to
bring that tradition into the Glens Falls market,”
Petrovek said. “Keeping the colors that
the Calgary Flames brought to Glens Falls
last spring gives us consistency throughout
the Calgary Flames organization and we’re
thrilled with the new look to begin play next
year. New leagues call for a fresh, new and
bold start and the Thunder brand does that
at a very high level.”
The Adirondack Flames and four other
teams are moving to California to create a
new Pacific Division of the AHL.
At a Jan. 30 press conference announcing
the three-year agreement, Daniel J. Burke,
president of the nonprofit community coalition
which assumed control of the Civic
Center from the city of Glens Falls on Jan. 1,
said it achieved two important goals, “retaining
professional hockey and moving the Civic
Center toward greater financial stability.”
“We worked hard to secure a three-year
commitment on terms that were financially
sustainable,” said Burke. “For our volunteer
board, this is a good first step but only a
beginning. We will continue working, with
the support of the community, to bring the
Civic Center to its full potential.”
“There is great fan support and a tremendous
tradition of hockey in the Glens Falls
area, and we are delighted to continue to be
a part of it,” said Brian Burke, president of
hockey operations for the Calgary Flames.
The ECHL team in Glens Falls will
become the market’s first team in that
league, following 26 seasons in the American
Hockey League and seven seasons in
the United Hockey League. The Thunder
will become the sixth professional hockey
team to call Glens Falls home, joining the
AHL’s Adirondack Red Wings, Adirondack
Phantoms and Adirondack Flames, along
with the UHL’s Adirondack Ice Hawks and
Adirondack Frostbite.
“Glens Falls has a long and storied tradition
of professional hockey,” ECHL Commissioner
Brian McKenna said at the Jan. 30
session. “The city fits well within our geography.
We welcome the Flames’ ownership of
the team and look forward to working with
their organization and the local coalition to
continue that hockey tradition.”
In 2014, Glens Falls reached an agreement
with Calgary to place its AHL affiliate team
in Glens Falls, with a provision in the contract
that allowed the team to leave after one
season. The new threeâ€year contract commits
the Calgary organization to keeping its ECHL
affiliate in Glens Falls for the full term.
Glens Falls Mayor Jack Diamond said
the Glens Falls area “has been a hockey
community for more than 30 years, and
that will continue. The city worked hard to
bring hockey back in 2009, and that work
helped set the stage for today’s decision. I
congratulate the coalition on this first and
very important success.”
“The guarantee of professional hockey for
years to come is great news,” said Warren
County Board of Supervisors Chairman Kevin
Geraghty. “The Glens Falls Civic Center is
truly a regional asset, a place of fun and entertainment
that people from every corner of
Warren County enjoy. It’s also an important
source of sales and occupancy tax revenues and a cornerstone of our tourism economy.”
In 2014, the Warren County Board of Supervisors
voted to provide up to $250,000 in
funding to support promotional activities at
the Civic Center over the next three years
in recognition of the significant regional
economic impact of the Civic Center.
“We appreciate Calgary’s confidence in
our community and their three-year
commitment,”
said Peter Aust, president of the
Adirondack Regional Chamber of Commerce.
“Our region can’t control decisions made on
a national level, but our positive support of
hockey certainly had an impact on Calgary’s
decision to maintain professional hockey
here.”
EDC Warren County President Edward
M. Bartholomew, who was mayor of Glens
Falls when the Civic Center opened in 1979,
said the three-year contract “affirms the
decision that they are the right group to
lead the Civic Center into the future. The
fan support for hockey in this community
is unparalleled. The fans and the business
sponsors who support professional hockey
here are the reason it will continue for years
to come.”
The ECHL Stockton Thunder averaged
4,438 fans per game, officials said. The team
was purchased by the Calgary organization
earlier in January.
Photo Courtesy Calgary Flames