No more results on this page
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.
This was our first game in 30 years and recently moved to TN. We had a great time and loved every minute... parking was across the street and easy to access the game. Friendly people and great hockey. Great assortment of food and craft beers!
You can get good seats for a reasonable price, easy parking, lots of good hockey! My six year-old grandson loves to come!
Really good seats great game would definitely be back for other games
It was great entertainment and fun! My only complaint would be that they could give more information about the activities for children.
Having the tickets on my phone was super easy. Overtime was exciting. Staff was friendly.
Amazing fans and team. We really enjoyed the winnie dog race. We plan on going again.
Took some first timers and had a great time! We’re going again soon!
Wonderful experience we plan to attend as many events as we can
The area to get in is way to small. People are flooding out the door to try and get in because they have a combo of people trying to get tickets, get tickets scanned, bag checks, ID checks for alcohol. Then the variety of concessions is terrible. Not variety and the same old same for years. Over priced hot dogs. The seats are miserably uncomfortable. Hard small wooden seats with several having cracks or missing pieces. The “energy team” is quite a joke they stand around talking or on their phones . No energy there. If it wasn’t for the actual hockey I wouldn’t go. I recommend spending not much more and going to a press game for a full experience of entertainment , comfort, food and drinks.
Awesome event. Crowd was in the game all night and we had a great time.
We had a great time. I wasn’t sure what to expect coming from Michigan. But these fans know hockey and know how to have a good time at games. If I lived closer I would be a season ticket holder.
First bears game, looking forward to the next!! Family had a great time, food was a little expensive, very entertaining. Recommend!!
The hockey is good, the venue is weak. Poor restrooms, poor concession stand food, poor beer areas, poor seating
Excellent lighting changes for the coliseum really changed the experience. Only issue i actually had was in purchasing my seats. They had good seats that I wanted to purchase but the buying system would not let me because of leaving one seat extra. I tried every way to purchase but ended up having to move to a different section. Not happy considering I was buying 8 seats.
Ready for the season to begin. We love to watch them play and plan to bring friends each time we come
This team has turned me into a hockey fanatic. I love to watch them play hockey.
Had a blast at the hockey game. Great food. Loved the kids running around the rink
I attended the game along with my wife, and thirteen year old daughter. We had never been to a hokey game before... in fact, we had to drive two hours each way just to get to one. We didn't understand all the rules at first, but really enjoyed all the fast paced action. I am sure that if weren't for the drive, we would attend more often!!! All in all... it was worth the effort!!!
Venue was fun, lots of alchohol available. Friendly and helpful staff. We had a great time and the seats were excellent.
We had a lot of fun. Definitely will be going back!
