Alaska Aces
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Established
1989 (35 years old)
Sport
Ice HockeyStadium/Home
Sullivan Arena
(6,290 Capacity)
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Location
Anchorage, Alaska
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cardinaldiehard25: 29/Jun/21
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The Alaska Aces, known as the Anchorage Aces until 2003, were a professional ice hockey team in Anchorage, Alaska. Home games were played at Sullivan Arena in Anchorage. The Aces won three Kelly Cup championships, with their last championship following the 2013–14 ECHL season.
The Aces were formed as a semi-professional team in the Pacific Southwest Hockey League (PSHL) in 1989 and became a charter member of the professional West Coast Hockey League (WCHL) in 1995. When the WCHL was absorbed by the East Coast Hockey League in 2003, the team joined the merged ECHL.
The Aces official team mascot was a polar bear named Boomer. Aces fans were known for using small, ceremonial cow bells painted with the Aces insignia to show their support during games.
In 2017, the ownership group announced that the 2016–17 season would be the team's last, after which the franchise would cease operations. The owners cited the struggling Alaskan economy, and sagging ticket sales among the reasons for the club's financial downfall. In June 2017, the franchise was sold and relocated to Portland, Maine, for the 2018–19 season.
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The George M. Sullivan Arena (commonly shortened to the "Sullivan Arena" and often referred to colloquially as "The Sully") is a 6,290 seat arena in Anchorage, Alaska, United States. The arena is named after former Anchorage mayor George M. Sullivan. It is owned by the Municipality of Anchorage and operated by SMG, a nationwide property management company. The Sullivan Arena sits in the southwest region of Fairview, a neighborhood in Anchorage. The arena opened in 1983 and sits just east of Mulcahy Stadium as part of the Chester Creek Sports Complex. Sullivan Arena hosted the 1989 World Junior Ice Hockey Championships along with the Harry J. McDonald Memorial Center in Eagle River.
In ice hockey, it was the home of the professional Alaska Aces of the ECHL from 1995 to 2017 and the University of Alaska Anchorage Seawolves men's NCAA Division I team from 1983 to 2019. It hosted the Great Alaska Shootout basketball tournament, which relocated to the Alaska Airlines Center in 2014. From 2007 to 2010, it was home to the Alaska Wild of the Indoor Football League. In 2021, the junior Anchorage Wolverines of the North American Hockey League plans to use Sullivan Arena for home games starting in the 2021–22 season, assuming the arena reopens following its use as a homeless shelter during the COVID-19 pandemic.
For hockey, the Sullivan Arena offers 6,251 seats with a standing room capacity of 6,451. If areas designated for wheel chairs are included, the arena can seat 6,290, plus standing room, during hockey games. The arena is noted for having an international-dimension (Olympic-sized) ice rink (61 m × 30 m / 200 ft × 98.5 ft) instead of the NHL dimensions (200 ft × 85 ft / 61 m × 25.9 m) common among North American venues. The main arena floor contains 32,000 square feet of space.
In 2014, a new center-hung scoreboard, with four 8-by-8-foot video screens and a wraparound LED display system was installed to replace the 80s style scoreboard which had a black-and-white dot matrix display. The new scoreboard was previously installed at the Cow Palace in Daly City, California, where it was used by the ECHL affiliate of the San Jose Sharks, the San Francisco Bulls. The Bulls purchased the scoreboard for their first season in 2012 but the team folded less than two years later. The scoreboard is made by Colosseo, a European company specializing in stadium and arena LED and entertainment technology.
There were plans, projected for 2015, for the neighboring Mulcahy Stadium to be demolished and rebuilt to its west in order to create 400 new parking spaces for the arena. In addition, all seats and telescopic risers inside Sullivan Arena were replaced, the arena floor was rebuilt, and its ice-making equipment was upgraded for the 2015–16 hockey season. Another renovation in 2017 expanded the arena's storage space by 5,000 square feet, replaced the arena's portable stage, floor seating and artificial turf, and improved the arena's acoustics.
Musicians that have played the Sullivan Arena are The Beach Boys in '83, Johnny Cash in '83, Eric Clapton (from the UK) in '85, Jimmy Buffett (from Key West) in '87, Bon Jovi in '89, Scorpions in '91, Ozzy Osbourne in 1992, Steve Miller Band (from San Francisco) in '93, Dr. Dre and Snoop Doggy Dogg in '94, Coolio in '96, Filter in '96, Metallica in '89, '92, '99 Aerosmith (from Boston) in '98, Green Day in '98, Stone Temple Pilots in '00, No Doubt in '00, Blink-182 in '01, James Brown in '01, Elton John in '08, Red Hot Chili Peppers in '13, Alaska's 36 Crazyfists in '15 for the Vans Warped Tour, Ontario's Sum 41 in '16, and Luke Bryan in '17.
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