Oklahoma City Blazers (1992-2009)

Central Hockey League (1992-2009)

Background

The Oklahoma City Blazers were a beloved hockey team of the 1990’s and 2000’s in the “double-A” level Central Hockey League (CHL). The Blazers were one of six original members of the CHL when it opened for business in 1992. Both the Blazers and the CHL itself were nostalgic re-boots of an earlier era of pro hockey: the original Central Hockey League operated from 1963-1984 and included the original Oklahoma City Blazers club from 1965 to 1977.

Attendance Champs?

The Blazers led the CHL in attendance for all 17 seasons of operation.  In fact, for much of the 1990’s and early 2000’s the latter-day Blazers habitually claimed to be the top draw in all of minor league hockey in the United States. The team consistently averaged between 8,000 and 10,000 fans from 1993 through 2008.

The veracity of these figures came into question in later years. Original Blazers owner Horn Chen sold the team for a reported $6 million to Bob Funk Sr. in late 1999. The parties ended up in litigation nearly a decade later, with Chen claiming that Funk reneged on paying a portion of the sale price and Funk counter-claiming that the Chen regime misrepresented the team’s attendance figures and revenues during the late 1990’s. Funk suggested that the 1990’s Blazers papered the city with up to 2,500 comp tickets per night and then reported those tickets in attendance, whether the people who received the freebies used them or not. The practice is common in the minors, then and now. The scale (if Funk’s estimate was genuine) was on the extreme side.

Despite the Blazers’ (mostly) legitimate popularity, the Funk family claimed losses of $6 million on the team during their decade of CHL ownership.

On The Ice

The Blazers had just two coaches over 17 years. Veteran NHL defenseman Michael McEwen helmed the team from 1992 to 1995. Doug Sauter and his magnificent handlebar mustache commanded the Blazers’ bench from 1995 until the team’s demise in 2009. The Blazers won CHL championships under Sauter in 1996 and 2001.

Center Joe Burton (Blazers ’92-’03) was the club’s all-time leader in games (708), goals (565), and points (985). Burton’s 985 points are also the most in the 22-year history of the Central Hockey League.

Demise & Aftermath

The Blazers’ dominance of Oklahoma City’s winter sports scene ended when the NBA’s Seattle Supersonics moved to town in 2008. Re-named the Oklahoma City Thunder, the NBA’s first season in the winter of 2008-09 proved to the Blazers final one. Hockey attendance dropped 25% and fell beneath 8,000 per game announced for the first time since 1993.

Meanwhile, the Funk family, owners of the Blazers since the 1999-00 season, went to work luring ‘triple A’ hockey to OKC. The Blazers failed to renew their lease at the 16,000 seat Ford Center in the summer of 2009 and closed their doors.

The following winter, the Funks secured an American Hockey League franchise to play at the less expensive Cox Convention Center (formerly the Myriad), where the Blazers had played from 1992 to 2002. Their Oklahoma City Barons franchise served as the top farm club for the NHL’s Edmonton Oilers from 2010 to 2015. Despite a higher level of hockey, the Barons never rekindled the popularity once enjoyed by the Blazers. Early in the Barons’ fifth season of play, Bob Funk Jr. and the Edmonton Oilers announced the team would not return to OKC after the conclusion of the 2014-15 season. The club moved to Bakersfield, California later in 2015.

Oklahoma City Blazers Shop

Oklahoma City Blazers Video

The Blazers visit the Wichita Thunder at the Kansas Coliseum. January 26, 2001

Links

Central Hockey League Media Guides

Central Hockey League Programs 1992-2014

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