Colorado Gold Kings

West Coast Hockey League (1998-2002)

Tombstone

Born: 1998 – The dormant Alaska Gold Kings club moves to Colorado Springs, CO
Folded: August 2002¹

First Game: October 9, 1998 (W 5-4 @ Anchorage Aces)
Last Game: April 17, 2002 (L 5-2 @ Tacoma Sabercats)

Taylor Cup Championships: None

Arena

Colorado Springs World Arena (7,343)²
Opened: 1998

Marketing

Team Colors:

Mascot: King Midas (the Lion)

Radio:

- 2000-01: KKCS (1460 AM)

Radio Broadcasters:

2000-01: Jack Michaels

Ownership

Owners: Jeff Smith, George Lenz, Dan Winters, Doug Stimple, et al.

Attendance

Trophy Case

WCHL Rookie of the Year:

1999-00: Todd Robinson*

*Note that Robinson only played 9 games for the Gold Kings at the tail end of the 1999-00 season and compiled most of his rookie accomplishments with the WCHL’s Idaho Steelheads in 62 games earlier in the season.

Background

The Gold Kings were a Colorado Springs minor league hockey outfit that skated four seasons in the West Coast Hockey League (WCHL) between 1998 and 2002. The WCHL membership included teams from Alaska, Arizona, California, Idaho and Washington at the time.

The franchise traced its origins back to Fairbanks, Alaska with the formation of the Fairbanks Teamsters senior amateur hockey team in 1975. The Teamsters changed their name to the Gold Kings in 1977. The Fairbanks Gold Kings were a top amateur team through the 1980’s and early 1990’s, often hosting exhibitions against touring Olympic teams and clubs for the Glasnost-era Soviet Union. In 1995, the Gold Kings made the leap to the professional ranks and joined the start-up WCHL as the Alaska Gold Kings. Fairbanks proved too small and remote for professional hockey and the team went on hiatus in 1997 after two WCHL seasons.

After a year off, the Gold Kings re-surfaced in Colorado Springs. On the face of it, Colorado Springs in 1998 was a superb place and time for minor league hockey. The city is home to the headquarters of USA Hockey, the sport’s amateur governing body in the United States. The sparkling new $59 million Colorado Springs World Arena opened that January with seating for 7,300 hockey fans. And the region was just a couple of years removed from the spectacular return of the National Hockey League to Denver, culminating in the Colorado Avalanche winning the Stanley Cup at the end of their debut season in 1996.

In Action

The Gold Kings were a solid, competitive squad and made the WCHL’s Taylor Cup playoffs in all four of their seasons. Kirk Tomlinson, a recently retired minor league journeyman who appeared in a single NHL game with the Minnesota North Stars during the 1987-88 season, coach the Gold Kings for their first three seasons. Under Tomlinson’s direction, Colorado advanced to the Taylor Cup semi-finals in back-to-back seasons in 1999-00 and 2000-01, but lost in three-game sweeps both years.

The Gold Kings had a handful of players with brief NHL experience on their resumes. Former Colorado Avalanche defenseman Dan Smith (Gold Kings ’01-’02) was the only Gold Kings player to get to the NHL after playing in the WCHL, getting back up with the Edmonton Oilers for seven games during the 2005-06 NHL season.

Right wing R.J. Enga, a product of local Colorado College, was the Gold Kings’ all-time leader in games (287), goals (165) and points (387).

End of the Road

Local owner Jeff Smith closed down the Gold Kings in August 2002. He cited more than $5 million in losses over the course of the team’s four seasons of play. Among the team’s various challenges was competition for prime playing dates at World Arena with the local Colorado College hockey program. During the Gold Kings’ final season in 2001-02, Colorado College reportedly averaged 5,600 fans per game at World Arena, while the Gold Kings drew only 3,787 for their dates.

Professional hockey has not returned to World Arena or Colorado Springs since the Gold Kings closed up shop more than two decades ago.