The Austin Ice Bats were a professional minor-league ice hockey

Ice hockey

Ice hockey, often referred to as hockey, is a team sport played on ice, in which skaters use wooden or composite sticks to shoot a hard rubber puck into their opponent's net. The game is played between two teams of six players each. Five members of each team skate up and down the ice trying to take...

 team based in Austin, Texas

Austin, Texas

Austin is the capital city of the U.S. state of :Texas and the seat of Travis County. Located in Central Texas on the eastern edge of the American Southwest, it is the fourth-largest city in Texas and the 14th most populous city in the United States. It was the third-fastest-growing large city in...

, United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

. They played in Austin from 1996 to 2008. Affiliated with the Central Hockey League

Central Hockey League

The Central Hockey League is a mid-level professional hockey league, owned by Global Entertainment Corporation. Its current champions are the Bossier-Shreveport Mudbugs, which defeated the Colorado Eagles four games to three in the 2011 playoffs....

, the team was named in honor of the Mexican Free-tailed Bat

Free-tailed bat

Molossidae, or free-tailed bats, are a family of bats within the order Chiroptera. They are generally quite robust, and consist of many strong flying forms with relatively long and narrow wings. Another common name for some members of this group, and indeed a few species from other families, is...

s (Tadarida

Tadarida

The genus Tadarida has ten or more species of bats divided into two subgenera, with the first of these containing seven species spread across the Old World...

 brasiliensis) which nest under the Ann W. Richards Congress Avenue Bridge

Ann W. Richards Congress Avenue Bridge

The Ann W. Richards Congress Avenue Bridge crosses over Lady Bird Lake in Austin, Texas. Before the construction of Longhorn Dam was completed in 1960, the bridge crossed the Colorado River from which Lady Bird Lake is impounded...

 in the city. Their affiliates were the NHL's Minnesota Wild

Minnesota Wild

The Minnesota Wild are a professional ice hockey team based in St. Paul, Minnesota, United States. They are members of the Northwest Division of the Western Conference of the National Hockey League ....

, the AHL

American Hockey League

The American Hockey League is a 30-team professional ice hockey league based in the United States and Canada that serves as the primary developmental circuit for the National Hockey League...

's Houston Aeros

Houston Aeros

The Houston Aeros are a professional ice hockey team in the American Hockey League. The team plays in Houston, Texas, at the Toyota Center. They are the AHL affiliate of the NHL's Minnesota Wild.- History :...

, and the ECHL

ECHL

The ECHL is a mid-level professional ice hockey league based in Princeton, New Jersey with teams scattered across the United States...

's Texas Wildcatters

Texas Wildcatters

The Texas Wildcatters, who took their name from Texas wildcatters, were an ECHL team based in Beaumont, Texas. They played their home games at the Ford Arena. They were the affiliate of the Florida Panthers in 2004–2005. The team played in Huntington, West Virginia and were known as the Huntington...

. The team's last head coach was former NHL

National Hockey League

The National Hockey League is an unincorporated not-for-profit association which operates a major professional ice hockey league of 30 franchised member clubs, of which 7 are currently located in Canada and 23 in the United States...

 player Brent Hughes

Brent Hughes (ice hockey b. 1966)

Brent Allen Hughes is a former ice hockey left winger and coach. He played in the National Hockey League for the Winnipeg Jets, Boston Bruins, Buffalo Sabres, and New York Islanders. He served as the head coach of the Austin Ice Bats of the Central Hockey League until that team ended its...

.

History

The team was established in 1996 and played home games in Luedecke Arena

Luedecke Arena

The Luedecke Arena is a 6,500-seat multi-purpose arena on the grounds of the Travis County Exposition Center in Austin, Texas.Built in 1983, the arena is home to the Star of Texas Fair & Rodeo, the Austin Turfcats of the Indoor Football League, and the Republic of Texas Biker Rally...

 at the Travis County

Travis County, Texas

As of 2009, the U.S. census estimates there were 1,026,158 people, 320,766 households, and 183,798 families residing in the county. The population density was 821 people per square mile . There were 335,881 housing units at an average density of 340 per square mile...

 Exposition Center, a multi-purpose building which was furnished with skating ice and dubbed the "Bat Cave" for the games. The team was original affiliated with the Western Professional Hockey League

Western Professional Hockey League

The Western Professional Hockey League is a defunct minor professional ice hockey league.It operated in the United States from 1996 to 2001, with teams in the southern United States, mainly Texas. The league started with six teams in the 1996-1997 season and grew to 18 teams in 1999-2000...

. The Ice Bats joined several other WPHL teams in a merger with the CHL

Central Hockey League

The Central Hockey League is a mid-level professional hockey league, owned by Global Entertainment Corporation. Its current champions are the Bossier-Shreveport Mudbugs, which defeated the Colorado Eagles four games to three in the 2011 playoffs....

 in 2001.

In May 2008, the team announced it was leaving Austin due to lack of fan support at Chaparral Ice

Chaparral Ice

Chaparral Ice is an ice skating facility located in Austin, Texas.The I-35 facility now boasts two sheets of ice. It remains the home ice facility for the ACHA University of Texas ice hockey team, and the Youth Hockey Foundation of Austin....

.http://www.statesman.com/sports/content/sports/stories/icebats/05/07/0507icebats.html Anticipated competition with the announced AHL

American Hockey League

The American Hockey League is a 30-team professional ice hockey league based in the United States and Canada that serves as the primary developmental circuit for the National Hockey League...

 Texas Stars

Texas Stars

The Texas Stars are an American Hockey League team. They play in Cedar Park, Texas, near Austin.The team is the top affiliate of the NHL Dallas Stars. In April 2008, the Iowa Stars announced that they would no longer affiliate with the Dallas Stars, and changed the team's name to Chops for the...

 has also been cited as a factor. It is unknown where the team intends to relocate to, though apparently an unsuccessful attempt was made to relocate to Ford Arena in Beaumont, Texas

Beaumont, Texas

Beaumont is a city in and county seat of Jefferson County, Texas, United States, within the Beaumont–Port Arthur Metropolitan Statistical Area. The city's population was 118,296 at the 2010 census. With Port Arthur and Orange, it forms the Golden Triangle, a major industrial area on the...

 for the 2008-9 season.

Arena

On February 15, 2006, the Ice Bats announced they would vacate the Travis County Exposition Center and relocate to Chaparral Ice, near Austin's northeast border with neighboring Pflugerville

Pflugerville, Texas

Pflugerville is a city in Travis and Williamson counties in the U.S. state of Texas. The population was 16,335 at the 2000 census. A July 1, 2008 U.S. Census Bureau estimate placed the population at 39,653...

. The Ice Bats cited scheduling conflicts at the Expo Center as the main reason for the move. Chaparral Ice proved to be an unsuccessful venue.

Media

The team had several announcers over the years. The first was Mark Marcatello, followed by Glen "Sharky" Norman and Brien Rea. Bob Fonseca was the first PA announcer. Philip Billnitzer covered the Bats for the Austin-American during the inaugural season and continued to cover them for CitySearch.com for two more seasons.

External links

• Austin Ice Bats official web site
• Chaparral Ice official web site