Bobcats Pounce on SPHL Opportunity!

 3/10/2021

Well well well, it's been a long time people of the interwebs! The Robinson Report has gotten a new branding as The Prospector!

Anyways, massive news out of the lower professional hockey world today! The Danville Dashers of the FPHL will now be replaced at David S. Palmer Arena by the Vermilion County Bobcats of the SPHL!

The final decision for this came last night as the Palmer Arena board approved the Bobcats group, led by local businesswoman Ellen Tully, over the Barry Soskin led Dashers group for the upcoming 2021-2022 season. The contract signed for the Bobcats to play at the Palmer will be for three seasons.
After last night's festivities, today saw the official introduction on the SPHL's social media pages for the Bobcats, including being welcomed by their new rival teams.

Before we get into the real nitty-gritty of this entire turn of events, let's quickly talk about the new Bobcats logo! This new logo is certainly a change from the ol' Dashers logo, showing a furious Bobcat showing its fangs and looking ready to attack. Although the main color of the logo is a sandy gold color, the main colorway being used for the team at the current moment uses red, black, silver, and white. All of those colors can be seen on the logo as well as secondary colors.

Now, onto the real meat and potatoes of these events. There have been talks of the SPHL going to Danville, IL since last winter when a new group of owners was looking to bring Danville into the SPHL fold along with other I-74 teams, like the Peoria Rivermen and the Quad City Storm. Of course, a lot of most anything sports-related was put on hold due to COVID-19, so talks went to the back burner until recently. The Dashers, meanwhile, have been unable to play since last spring thanks to the pandemic and Illinois's strict policies. Tully has also announced the AGM for the Vermilion County Bobcats, and that is Sebastian Rogno who most recently worked for the now-defunct Mentor Ice Breakers. Tully also mentioned that tickets for Bobcats games will start at $10, which is actually lower than what the Dashers had.

Other topics mentioned by Tully is the fact that Palmer Arena is only a 2,350 seat capacity arena, which is far lower than any other SPHL team at the moment. She also mentioned that they chose the county name over the city so they can include the surrounding areas as well. The new ownership group is looking to grow the game faster in and around the city of Danville, with hopes of working with the local youth hockey organization and other smaller teams in the area. The team has also supposedly been in contact with a few NHL organizations in terms of potential partnerships, which would no doubt be a massive boost for the teams' recognition. 

That's all from this edition of The Prospector, I hope to see you all very soon for more incredible content! Also, make sure to check out the Vermilion County Bobcats on Twitter here! Of course, make sure to follow The Prospector on Twitter as well, which you can find right here!