Colorado Springs World Arena Lands Gold Kings WCHL Team

After months of negotiation and speculation, it"s official: Colorado Springs World Arena & Ice Hall has landed a West Coast Hockey League squad.
The Colorado Gold Kings will take the ice at the recently-opened building next October, WCHL spokesperson Sammy Wallace told AB.
The franchise, which is dormant this season, previously played at the Big Dipper Ice Arena in Fairbanks, Alaska, which has a capacity of 2,500. The new facility will seat 7,600 for hockey.
"The size of the market was really the problem all along in Fairbanks, and you also have the harsh climate," Wallace said.
The Gold Kings have a long tradition in competitive hockey that dates back to their amateur beginnings in 1975. Originally located in Fairbanks, the team hosted various tournaments against Canadian and European teams through the years.
After winning their fifth U.S. National Championship in 1995, the Gold Kings became a founding member of the WCHL. But following the 1996-97 season, the team went dormant.
"They had already begun negotiations to relocate by the end of the (1995-96) season, but the facility wasn"t complete," Wallace said. "It didn"t make sense for them to play another season in Fairbanks, basically as a lame duck."
Gold Kings owner John Rosie was out of town at press time and unavailable for comment. In a WCHL statement, he said: "Having been associated with USA Hockey since the early "80s, I"ve watched Colorado Springs grow and develop into a first-class city."
The Colorado squad will bring WCHL"s membership to 10 clubs for next season, which begins in October. Three -- Colorado, the (Boise) Idaho Steelheads and the Bakersfield (Calif.) Fog -- will be playing in new or nearly-new arenas.
The three-year-old league is having its strongest attendance year yet, Wallace said, with average crowds running 20% larger than those of a year ago.

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