Milton Keynes Kings were an Ice Hockey team based in
Milton Keynes.
History
The MK Kings originally played in various divisions of the
British Hockey League
The British Hockey League was the top-flight ice hockey league in the United Kingdom from 1980 until 1996 (with a short break between 1981 and 1982), when it was replaced by the Ice Hockey Superleague and the British National League. The league r ...
(BHL) from 1990 until 1996. In 1998, two seasons after the closure of the BHL, they joined the
English Premier Ice Hockey League (EPIHL) for a season before moving into the higher level
British National League for four consecutive seasons between 1999 and 2003.
Following a dispute with the owners of the
Planet Ice Arena in Milton Keynes in 2002; combined with the dissolution of the second incarnation of the
Solihull Barons
The Solihull Barons are an English ice hockey team from the town of Solihull who play at Solihull Ice Rink on Hobs Moat Road. The current team, which is the third incarnation of the Barons, was formed in 2005; they are named after the original te ...
, the team relocated to the Blue Ice Plaza in
Solihull
Solihull (, or ) is a market town and the administrative centre of the wider Metropolitan Borough of Solihull in West Midlands County, England. The town had a population of 126,577 at the 2021 Census. Solihull is situated on the River Blyth ...
, where they rebranded themselves the
Solihull MK Kings for the 2002-03 BNL season; effectively merging the Milton Keynes and Solihull franchises in that league.
Around the same time that the move to Solihull occurred, the owners of Planet Ice Arena formed the
Milton Keynes Lightning
The Milton Keynes Lightning are an ice hockey team founded in 2002 in Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire. The Lightning currently play in Britain's second-tier professional league, the National Ice Hockey League (NIHL), since the 2019–20 season. ...
; whom joined the EPIHL shortly after their formation. Following the culmination of the Kings' first season in Solihull in May 2003; the team resigned from the BNL and was dissolved.
Following their dissolution; they were first replaced in Solihull by the newly formed
Solihull Kings, who joined the EPIHL for two seasons between 2003 and 2005 before dissolving; and later replaced by a reformed
Solihull Barons
The Solihull Barons are an English ice hockey team from the town of Solihull who play at Solihull Ice Rink on Hobs Moat Road. The current team, which is the third incarnation of the Barons, was formed in 2005; they are named after the original te ...
who again joined the EPIHL for two seasons between 2005 and 2007; before settling into the lower
English National Ice Hockey League from 2007 onwards.
A to Z of Hockey
/ref>
References
Ice hockey teams in England
Sport in Milton Keynes
Defunct ice hockey teams in the United Kingdom
Ice hockey clubs established in 1996
Ice hockey clubs disestablished in 2003
{{Europe-icehockey-team-stub