The Fayetteville Force was a professional

ice hockey Ice hockey (or simply hockey) is a team sport played on ice skates, usually on an ice skating rink with lines and markings specific to the sport. It belongs to a family of sports called hockey. In ice hockey, two opposing teams use ice h ...

team. based in Fayetteville, North Carolina. The franchise was a member of the

Central Hockey League The Central Hockey League (CHL) was a North American mid-level minor professional ice hockey league which operated from 1992 until 2014. It was founded by Ray Miron and Bill Levins and later sold to Global Entertainment Corporation, which opera ...

(1997–2001). They played their home games at the

Crown Coliseum The Crown Coliseum (originally the Cumberland County Crown Coliseum) is a multi-purpose arena in Fayetteville, North Carolina, that is part of the Crown Complex. The stadium broke ground in 1995 and opened in 1997, and is currently home to the Fa ...

Background

In 1996, the Central Hockey League (CHL) decided to expand eastward, adding privately owned teams for the first time.

Bill Coffey Bill Coffey is a businessman and minor league sports entrepreneur. He is one of the founders of the ECHL (formerly known as the East Coast Hockey League). Founded in 1988, the ECHL is a minor professional ice hockey league that serves as a develo ...

, one of the founders of the

East Coast Hockey League The ECHL (formerly the East Coast Hockey League) is a mid-level professional ice hockey league based in Shrewsbury, New Jersey, with teams scattered across the United States and Canada. It is a tier below the American Hockey League (AHL). The E ...

, applied for a franchise in Fayetteville, North Carolina. The

Cape Fear region Cape Fear is a coastal plain and Tidewater region of North Carolina centered about the city of Wilmington. The region takes its name from the adjacent Cape Fear headland, as does the Cape Fear River which flows through the region and empties ...

had a population of close to a quarter of a million people and was the home of Fort Bragg, one of the largest military posts in the world. On June 17, 1997, it was announced that Fayetteville would become a member of the CHL. The team was named the ''Force'' in honor of the military base and would play its home games at the new

. In its first season the team was a financial success, drawing an average of almost 4,000 spectators a game during the 1997–98 season. The triumph of the first year relied upon more than just the northern-raised servicemen and other such transplants who were hockey fans. The novelty of the new Crown Coliseum was a draw in the first year, as were hockey fights and “zany” promotions such as a between-periods contest of shooting the puck at empty beer cartons placed along the goal line - hitting a carton meant that the shooter would take home a full case of

beer Beer is one of the oldest and the most widely consumed type of alcoholic drink in the world, and the third most popular drink overall after water and tea. It is produced by the brewing and fermentation of starches, mainly derived from ce ...

. After two years, Coffey sold the club. The new ownership group lacked knowledge of the business of minor league sports, and the travel to places as distant as

San Antonio ("Cradle of Freedom") , image_map = , mapsize = 220px , map_caption = Interactive map of San Antonio , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = United States , subdivision_type1= State , subdivision_name1 = Texas , subdivision_t ...

Texas Texas (, ; Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2020, it is the second-largest U.S. state by ...

, became increasingly more expensive. Additionally, the honeymoon between the local residents and the new sport and its arena was over. The brightest moment of the Force’s last two seasons occurred on January 25, 2000, when the Coliseum hosted the CHL

All-Star Game An all-star game is an exhibition game that purports to showcase the best players (the "stars") of a sports league. The exhibition is between two teams organized solely for the event, usually representing the league's teams based on region or d ...

. Despite the fact that eight inches of

snow Snow comprises individual ice crystals that grow while suspended in the atmosphere—usually within clouds—and then fall, accumulating on the ground where they undergo further changes. It consists of frozen crystalline water throughout ...

had fallen during the day, 6,128 people showed to watch the game. In the spring of 2001, it was announced that the CHL would consolidate with the

Western Professional Hockey League The Western Professional Hockey League (abbreviated WPHL) is a defunct minor professional ice hockey league. The WPHL operated from 1996 to 2001 with teams based in the southern United States, primarily Texas and Louisiana. The league started with ...

. With the departures of teams in Columbus, Huntsville and Macon, the Force became isolated and it was determined to be financially impossible to continue in the CHL, so they folded. There would be no more professional hockey in Fayetteville until the 2002–03 season, when the ACHL and the Cape Fear FireAntz would come to town.

References

Defunct Central Hockey League teams Ice hockey clubs established in 1997 Sports clubs disestablished in 2001 1997 establishments in North Carolina 2001 disestablishments in North Carolina Ice hockey teams in North Carolina Sports in Fayetteville, North Carolina {{NorthCarolina-sport-team-stub