Central Hockey League

CENTRAL HOCKEY LEAGUE

(1992 - Present)

The Central Hockey League was resurrected in 1992 as lower level professional league. It started out as a small six team league initially operating in many of the traditional CHL cities. In 1994, the league expanded into San Antonio bringing the league to seven team.

In 1995, the league lost the Dallas Freeze who had struggled to compete for attention with the Dallas Stars who had come to town in 1993.

In 1996, many things changed in minor professional hockey. Interest in hockey was on the upswing in the US and many people were interested in capitalizing on it. The CHL added four teams (Columbus, Macon, Nashville and Huntsville) and in the process claimed a couple of former ECHL markets. Meanwhile, the league faced competition to the West when the WPHL was formed along with the IHL who had transferred a team into San Antoinio share that market.

In 1997, the league lost the San Antionio market to the IHL but also added the Fayetteville Force. However, they faced even more competition due to rapid expansion in the ECHL and WPHL. The WPHL put a team in Fort Worth and in direct competition with the CHL Fort Worth Fire.

In 1998, the CHL lost the Nashville market to the NHL but also regained San Antonio and added Topeka. However the rapid expansion in the ECHL and WPHL continued.

In 1999, the CHL lost the battle for the Fort Worth Market but took in the Indianapolis Ice from the IHL. At this point, interest in hockey in the US had peaked and the bubble created by the rapid expansion was about to burst.

In 2000, the IHL, ECHL and WPHL all had to deal with contraction. And while the CHL also had it's problems, it was not as overextended as the other leagues and actually grew by one team. The league Added the short-lived Border City Bandits and folded the Huntsville Channel Cats to make room for the new Huntsville Tornadoes.

The following year, the CHL and WPHL merged and in the process purged themselves of their weak franchises. The new league decided to operate under the more traditional CHL name.