MIKE LAWRENCE / COURIER & PRESS



Evansville Mayor Lloyd Winnecke announced at a Monday press conference that Evansville will be the newest member of the Southern Professional Hockey League with a new team for the 2016-17 season, February 8, 2016.

SHARE MIKE LAWRENCE / COURIER & PRESS Self described hockey super fan Mike Hall (right) along with Southern Professional Hockey League president Jim Combs discusses bringing a new SPHL team to the Ford Center next season during a press conference held at the Ford Center Monday, February 8, 2016. MIKE LAWRENCE / COURIER & PRESS President of the Evansville Redevelopment Commission Randy Alsman (right) with local business man Mike Hall answer questions at Monday's Ford Center news conference concerning Hall bringing a Southern Professional Hockey League team to Evansville next season, February 8, 2016. Related Coverage Traveling City Hall heads to the West Side

Evansville will have a new hockey team next season, city officials announced Monday.

Local businessman Mike Hall is investing to bring a new Southern Professional Hockey League team to the Ford Center.

The announcement comes less than three weeks after the ECHL’s IceMen franchise said it was leaving Evansville for Owensboro, Kentucky.

Hall, a self-proclaimed hockey "superfan" and IceMen season ticket holder, said he wanted to be part of the solution to keeping hockey in Evansville.

The 45-year-old with a background in mechanical engineering said he’s owned several businesses. After seeing the IceMen in 2012, he fell in love with the game.

Hall decided he wanted to keep hockey alive in Evansville, after the IceMen’s announced departure. He spoke to officials from different professional leagues, and said he considered the SPHL the best fit.

Hall’s new SPHL team does not yet have a name, mascot or logo. He plans to hold a public contest to determine the name of the new team. He expects to reveal details of that plan in the coming months.

CANVASS EXTRA: Meet SPHL owner Mike Hall

The IceMen’s departure came after months of contract negotiations broke down between IceMen owner Ron Geary and the city officials over leasing the Ford Center.

The five-year lease offered to the new team has the same terms as the one rejected in January by the IceMen, officials said. Details were not available, but Winnecke said the terms benefit both the city and the team.

Evansville Redevelopment Commission President Randy Alsman expects the commission to discuss and vote on the lease at either of its next two meetings.

While discussions have taken place over the last few weeks, the lease was officially offered Monday.

The SPHL has nine active franchises for the current season. Unlike the ECHL, teams in the SPHL do not have affiliations with National Hockey League teams. The 12-year-old league is based near Charlotte.

SPHL teams are in Peoria, Illinois; Fayetteville, North Carolina; Pensacola, Florida; Southaven, Mississippi, a suburb of Memphis; Huntsville, Alabama; Knoxville, Tennessee; Lafayette, Louisiana; Columbus, Georgia; and Macon, Georgia. A 10th franchise, in Roanoke, Virginia, is to join the league next season. Evansville will bump that up to 11 teams.

The IceMen play 36 games a year at the Ford Center. SPHL teams have 28 home games a season. Its season begins Oct. 21.

In an email to the Courier & Press Monday morning, IceMen Chief Operating Officer Jim Riggs noted areas with multiple hockey teams.

"Recent history of (minor league) hockey shows when there are two pro teams in same market all it does is split existing fan base," Riggs wrote in the email. "Our goal, obviously, is to retain as much of our Evansville base as we can while growing the base in Kentucky."

The IceMen’s new home rink at the SportsCenter in Owensboro is 40 driving miles away from the Ford Center.

Winnecke said he’s confident the area can support two professional hockey teams.

"We think that professional hockey is very sustainable here. We think that Mike has come up with a business plan that will work here. And it’s certainly going to be incumbent upon he and the team he builds in the coming weeks and months to promote the team and get the fans in the stands," he said.

League President Jim Combs said no other SPHL team is as close to another professional team as the new Evansville team will be to the IceMen.

Combs said he isn’t worried about hockey fans being split between the two cities because they’re unique markets.

"Our main priority is this community, this Ford Center and that owner there," he said pointing to Hall. "We want to make this the best for Evansville and we want to make it successful here."

Announcements about who will coach and play on the team won’t likely come until after the end of all the professional hockey league seasons.

Hall said season ticket announcements will come in March or April. Tickets will be cheaper than the IceMen tickets, he said.