Newcastle Vipers pull out of Elite League

• James
• May 9th, 2011
• Blog
• 0 Comments

Newcastle Vipers have confirmed that the club will not be participating in the Elite Ice Hockey League in 2011/12. The Vipers are one of our core ice hockey clients and have been since we developed their official website in 2009.

The club struggled through last season and hasn’t been able to find the backing required to keep the team going in the top flight. A press release issued by the club read:

After attending Tuesday’s Elite League Board Meeting General Manager Jaimie Longmuir confirmed the Vipers will not participate in the league during 2011/12 ending the clubs 6 year participation in the UK’s top league meaning the north east will no longer have a top flight ice hockey in the region.

“It’s incredibly sad to confirm that the Vipers will no longer participate in the Elite League following Tuesday’s meeting.  Before the end of the season and up until now significant time and studies have been undertake to try and find a way of keeping the Vipers franchise operational in the Elite League but unfortunately haven’t been successful.

“Every option to keep the club operational was investigated including the first option of trying to secure new investment or ownership but unfortunately this did not materialise so the only other option was to try and devise a plan that would enable the club to sustain itself but unfortunately again proved to be unsuccessful.  Given everything that has been invested in the club in terms of money, time, energy, effort and sacrifice it’s an incredibly sad day for everyone especially the loyal hard core of fans who stuck by the club to the very end,” confirmed Longmuir.

It has been a rollercoaster few years for the club however 2010/11 was the toughest yet for the Vipers organisation and today’s news is a sad end to a turbulent campaign. “Some will say the last few years have been disappointing and I cannot argue with that but the fact we were able to keep the club alive over the past few years is a remarkable achievement in itself.  The fact that we have basically operated without the support of a home venue in an unstable environment has been devastating and unfortunately we were unable to realise our long term goal of playing in a permanent home venue that would have ensured the clubs long term sustainability.  Every effort to try and make this a reality was made by our previous ownership groups but unfortunately it wasn’t to be.  Whitley Bay Ice Rink have been extremely accommodating and done their best to welcome the club but unfortunately too many fans could not support the club in the venue” commented Longmuir.

“It is small consolation that we managed to honour our fixture commitments for 2010/11 as quite honestly the club could easily have ceased operation in January which would have been devastating for the supporters, sponsors, players etc but we managed to pull through the toughest of situations thanks to our loyal hard core of fans, our players and coach and the support mechanisms put in place by the Elite League Club and I am very grateful to everyone who played their part in keeping the club alive.”