It’s been 16 years since professional hockey was played in San Francisco, but that will all change next October when the ECHL’s San Francisco Bulls take to the ice at the Cow Palace. The league announced Wednesday that they’ve approved the membership of the club, owned by a seven-member group that’s led by the team’s new head coach, Pat Curcio.
Pro Hockey Returning To San Francisco: ECHL’s Bulls To Begin Play In 2012-13
San Francisco will host professional hockey next season when the ECHL’s San Francisco Bulls take the ice at the Cow Palace.
“We are so excited and proud to provide professional hockey to the San Francisco Bay area,” said Curcio. “The on-ice product will be very entertaining and the Cow Palace is the perfect venue for our team.”
This, of course, isn’t the first time the famed Cow Palace has hosted professional hockey. In total, four other teams have called the building, which seats just over 11,000 for hockey and was built in 1941, home:
- The San Francisco Shamrocks of the Pacific Hockey League played from 1977 to early 1979.
- The first incarnation of what would become the California Seals of the NHL played there in the WHL from 1961 to 1977.
- The San Francisco Spiders of the IHL played one season at Cow Palace before folding in 1995-96.
- The San Jose Sharks of the NHL played their first two seasons in the building while waiting for completion of San Jose Arena, now known as HP Pavilion.
According to the The Sun of San Bernardino, the vote to welcome the Bulls was “almost unanimous” at the ECHL’s league meeting in Atlanta. League commissioner Brian McKenna said that adding a team in San Francisco was a good move for their Western Conference, with California teams already located in Stockton, Bakersfield and Ontario.
Hockey has never really worked over the long term in San Francisco, but with the success of the Sharks in San Jose over the last decade, things are clearly different these days. Maybe it can finally work this time around.
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