BASINGSTOKE,U.K- Having looked on the verge of folding, the Basingstoke Bison are now certain to make it to the end of this season’s Elite League campaign. Having seen there second owner in the space of 12 months nearly run the team into the ground.
The operations of the Basingstoke Arena – the home of the Herd, Planet Ice have taken back the franchise they ran in the Bison’s early years in the Elite League and so have secured the team’s future. This will come with a sign of relief to the supporters of the club celebrating its 20th anniversary season.
The new men in charge of the team are Planet Ice Director of Operations, John Neville and Director of Hockey Harry Robinson. Neville has run hockey teams in the past in Blackburn and will oversee things from his base in the midlands. Well respected Basingstoke businessman Robinson will be the man at the club looking after the every day running of things.
“Ice Hockey is an important part of the community of Basingstoke, together with Planet Ice we are looking to ensure the stability of the team on both a commercial and financial basis,” Robinson said “I will now be actively pursuing fresh sponsorship and partnerships which will support those objectives.” The off ice problems leading up to Planet Ice taking back the team has taken its toll on the team who saw their head coach Ryan Aldridge quit, quickly followed by club captain Brad Cruikshank ending over three years with the club.
Aldridge has returned to his home town team of Swindon Wildcats, while Cruikshank has headed north to play for the Bison’s league rivals the Sheffield Steelers. Two other players Mark Richardson have moved to Nottingham Panthers and the injured defenseman Jason Goulet is heading back to Canada.
The new man at the helm is defenseman Eric Braff in his first role as head coach. A firm fans favourite and winner of the town’s Sports Personality award voted by the readers of the Basingstoke Gazette last year, has made him a popular choice.
Enforcer to assistant coach (Photo by Mark Tredgold)
There most memorable win to date came with a 6-4 victory in Nottingham, to deny the Panthers the chance to go top of the Elite League table. This was with a team two imports light and the management are now looking hard for replacements to come in to bring the Bison back up to full strength.
“This is a fresh start for us and we must say a big thank you to Planet Ice, we still have a couple of weeks to get a full team together, but by mid November we should be ready to match anybody in this league,” Braff said. Contact the author at Graham.merry@prohockeynews.com
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