The Manchester Storm were an ice hockey team from Manchester, England. The team formed in 1995, playing their home games at the then newly built Nynex Arena (since renamed the Manchester Arena (after a spell of being called the Manchester Evening News Arena). Storm won the British Hockey League Division One in their first season, watched by an average crowd of 6,342. Success in the end of season promotion/relegation play-offs followed, resulting in Storm being promoted to the Premier Division of the British Hockey League. However, Britain's league structure was changed in 1996, with the formation of the Ice Hockey Superleague, of which the Manchester team were a founder member. This was alongside Ayr Scottish Eagles, Basingstoke Bison, Bracknell Bees, Cardiff Devils, Newcastle Riverkings, Nottingham Panthers and Sheffield Steelers. The highs of the inaugural season weren't matched in season 2 though, and Storm finished a disappointing seventh in the league. This led to the sacking of coach John Lawless.
American Kurt Kleinendorst was brought in for the 1997–98 season and he completely changed the face of the playing staff. There were 12 new faces on the 19 strong roster when the season started and they went on to make history for a British club in the European Hockey League. As well as holding Dynamo Moscow to a regulation time draw (losing 2–3 in overtime), they beat Sparta Prague home and away — winning 7–0 at home and 4–3 in the Czech capital.
Storm hold the record for the largest ice hockey attendance at a UK league game, set on February 23, 1997, when 17,245 people watched a match against Sheffield Steelers. At the time, this was also a European record. The record for the largest attendance at any ice hockey game in the UK is 17,551 at The O2 arena (London) on 30 September 2007 for a NHL game between the Los Angeles Kings and the Anaheim Ducks.
Manchester Storm folded in 2002 after owner Gary Cowan refused to continue on moral grounds.
A supporters group was formed following the collapse of Manchester Storm, and launched a new team called the Manchester Phoenix.
Read more about Manchester Storm: Past Managers/Head Coaches, Honours, Two Team Players
Famous quotes containing the words manchester and/or storm:
“The [nineteenth-century] young men who were Puritans in politics were anti-Puritans in literature. They were willing to die for the independence of Poland or the Manchester Fenians; and they relaxed their tension by voluptuous reading in Swinburne.”
—Rebecca West (1892–1983)
“When the storm rattles my windowpane
I’ll stay hunched at my desk, it will roar in vain
For I’ll have plunged deep inside the thrill
Of conjuring spring with the force of my will,
Coaxing the sun from my heart, and building here
Out of my fiery thoughts, a tepid atmosphere.”
—John Ashbery (b. 1927)