Awesome experience
by Greg on 3/18/25Knoxville Civic Coliseum - KnoxvilleRating: 5 out of 5I love going to the hockey games. A great evening at a reasonable price. The atmosphere is great and the food is good. And there's always at least one fight!

Add-Ons
Parking
Add-Ons
Parking
Add-Ons
Parking
Add-Ons
Parking
Add-Ons
Parking
Add-Ons
Parking
Add-Ons
Parking
Add-Ons
Parking
Add-Ons
Parking
Add-Ons
Parking
Add-Ons
Parking
About Knoxville Ice Bears
Knoxville Ice Bears at Knoxville Civic Coliseum
The Knoxville Ice Bears hit the ice for another exciting season in the Southern Professional Hockey League. The Knoxville Ice Bears play out of the General James White Memorial Civic Auditorium and Coliseum (usually shortened to Knoxville Civic Coliseum), which opened in 1961 and has a capacity of 5,937. Coach Jeff Carr replaced Mike Craigen before the beginning of the 2017-18 season. The Ice Bears are one of five teams playing in the SPHL, including the Birmingham Bulls, the Huntsville Havoc, the Macon Mayhem and the Pensacola Ice Flyers.
History of the Knoxville Ice Bears
The Marble City has had a decades-long love affair with hockey, with the Knoxville Knights playing in the Eastern Hockey League from 1961 to 1968, and the Knoxville Cherokees of the East Coast Hockey League from 1988 to 1997. Mike Murray was the Cherokees’ all-time leader in points, goals and assists before becoming the Ice Bears’ general manager in 2006. The Knoxville Speed of the United Hockey League played from 1999 until 2002, after which the Ice Bears were founded as a charter member of the Atlantic Coast Hockey League. After one season, the ACHL split into the SEHL (of which the Ice Bears were a member) and WHA 2, with the surviving teams from each league rejoining for the 2004-05 season as the Southern Professional Hockey League.
The Knoxville Ice Bears have been the most successful franchise by far in the SPHL, winning President’s Cup championships in 2006, 2008, 2009 and 2015, and William B. Coffey trophies as the team with the best regular-season record in 2005, 2006, 2008 and 2009. UFC fighter Scott “Hot Sauce” Holtzman, who hails from Knoxville, played two games with the Ice Bears in the 2007-08 season, before pursuing a career in mixed martial arts.
I love going to the hockey games. A great evening at a reasonable price. The atmosphere is great and the food is good. And there's always at least one fight!
It was very easy to navigate in the Ticketmaster mobile app to get my IceBear tickets!
The Ice Bears game itself was very entertaining and the players worked really hard. Conversely, we sat in section JJ. The ticket had a disclaimer that there may be an obstructed view. I have been to hundreds of hockey games and I fully expected the obstruction to be the protective netting behind the net. Instead, we were on a balcony and LITERALLY could not see the net on the ice. All we could see was from about the face-off dot out, toward the goal at the other end of the ice. These tickets should not even be sold for ice hockey! When I complained, the team representative told me to just find an open seat, which was virtually impossible since the game was almost a sellout.
Everything went as planned. I would highly recommend.
Outstanding performance during the intermission by the weenie dog race group. Game was fun as well but what made it so great was the environment propelled by the announcer who doubled as an excellent hype-man and entertainer!
I had fun at the game. I had never been so here are a couple suggestions: need cup holders on the seats, better signage for where to go for seats or food or bathroom or even the store I could see but didn’t know how to get to, store needs magnets or shot glasses as lot of people collect these and didn’t have either. There are stairs and elevator but didn’t see elevator until got to bottom floor. Theres a kid section and overheard people saying they never knew that was there. Seats are not as small as previous reviews made them seem. But when you are bundled for cold, there is not a lot of room. It was chaos getting in after get through gates. People were running to door to get in but didn’t know the giveaway was outside. Overall it was good. Price was good. Parking beside building was wonderful. Getting out was easy.
Game was great. Atmosphere was good. But from our seats we couldn’t see one of the goals. The seats at both ends restrict your view of the goal on your end. Sit on the sides if you want to watch the entire game.
Everything went very well. All digital/phone parking tickets and game tickets worked perfectly. Enjoyed the game to the very end. Accommodations were good and easily accessible. A great night overall! Will be going back again soon.
I love going to the Knoxville Ice Bears games. Very affordable and great environment. The only thing I wished they had was a view from the seats when your purchasing the tickets.
Fun night on New Years Eve. Plenty of food and drinks
I want to preface this by saying that I’ve been to another Icebears game and had a great experience in different seats. I would highly recommend that anyone who has a slight interest in hockey or in sports go to a game. They are fantastic. I had seats behind the goal (1st time for seats like this). They are considered to be like VIP seats. I was in the top row which is like 6 or 7 row back from the boards. The seats were padded folding chairs. The main issue I had was I had no leg room (I’m about 6’2 and 300 lbs so not a small person) , there wasn’t much of a walking space and I couldn’t see the action once they where close to the boards. (I don’t know if that was the seats or if that’s just how sitting behind the goal is).
Go see the Ice Bears! This was our first time to a hockey game and it was so much fun!
It was our first Knoxville Ice Bears game, and we had a lot of fun!
Flawless purchase, great communication and very easy to use web sight. The venue was great. The game was excellent!
Game was fun. Concessions were terrible. Maybe it was coming off a holiday and food was old ?
The game was fun to watch. But the seats where we sat were a little underwhelming. We couldn’t see both goals where we were sitting. And if we would have known that we wouldn’t have bought the seats that we purchased. There should be something saying that for future tickets bought.
I want to start by saying the venue is great, the atmosphere is amazing. It’s great for the entire family. The staff is friendly and vey helpful. But the main reason I chose this game was for “fight night” I was very disappointed in the “fight night”. I purchased 5 tickets and my friend purchased 4 tickets. We both drove almost 2 hours each way for the game. Out of the 9 tickets purchased, 5 of the people had never been to a hockey game, and the “fight night” is why they came. We saw zero fights. Sure there was some “face washing” which included a penalty for fighting, but…. No gloves were dropped, no one squared up, the only thing was a few words. When the players wanted actually answer the call of “fight night” the referees came skating at them as in a rush to make sure no one came the blows. What is the point of said “fight night” if we the fans are not going to get the “promotion” promised?? I really wish I could get a refund on my tickets since the promotion was never delivered. I highly doubt this will happen. But again, the arena, team and staff are top notch (with the exception of the referees on that night).
This was a great experiment for everyone in our family! It was relatively affordable for everyone! The game was fast and eventful. The staff were all very friendly. And the value of the price paid was well worth it! You get the same experience as a profesional NHL hockey game, at a more affordable family price. Well worth every dollar! Cannot state how great this event was!
The ice bears are always exciting whether they win or lose. The events between quarters and some plays for the kids/adults are fun to watch. The game is fast-paced and I enjoy going very much.
Gooooo ice bears Gooooo ice bears Gooooo ice bears Gooooo ice bears Go ice bears!!!!!