PEORIA — The SPHL continued its offseason growth spurt over the weekend with the addition of another expansion team.
The Pee Dee Ice Cats have left the low-A Federal Professional Hockey League to join the high-A SPHL. The SPHL owners gave conditional approval to the three-member Florence, South Carolina ownership group while some procedural steps are completed.
That follows the Athens Rock Lobsters’ move to the SPHL from the FPHL last month, and an incoming team in Mobile, Alabama, that will begin operations in 2027-28 in a brand-new arena.
That puts the SPHL at 12 teams for the 2026-27 season, with 13 or more possible by 2027-28.
“There’s many things causing these teams to move to us,” Peoria Rivermen co-owner and Rivermen Hall of Fame inductee Bart Rogers said. “Our league is solid with 10 teams, 12 teams, could be 13 eventually. We try to expand within our footprint to make sure our efficiencies of operating are consistent across the board with good owners, good markets.”
Athens just hired Scott Burt as its new head coach. He played against the Rivermen in the ECHL while with Toledo, Wheeling and Idaho. He’s spent the last five seasons as head coach and GM at ECHL Rapid City and Greensboro.
Pee Dee is an old Rivermen opponent from Peoria’s ECHL era nearly 30 years ago. Mobile is a former ECHL city as well.
And as the class-AA ECHL continues to rise in operational costs – in part from a new collective bargaining agreement with its players union – more movement could happen with teams looking to move downward into the SPHL, which has an ownership-friendly operating model.
Struggling ECHL market Iowa City is believed to be coveted by the SPHL.
NOW Arena, a 10,543-seat arena in Hoffman Estates that has had professional hockey in the past, could be a target market for an SPHL team.
So could The Family Arena in St. Charles, Missouri., a 10,467-seat arena that has been home to pro hockey in the past.
The minor-league hockey landscape seems to be going through an informal re-alignment, and there could be more FPHL teams coming to the SPHL in the next couple years.
The FPHL is in an unusual transition, with its identity as an East Coast circuit, but now adding four teams in California.
The league’s parting with Pee Dee was not friendly. The FPHL put out a statement Saturday challenging the team’s readiness to play in 2026-27.
Dave Eminian is the Journal Star senior writer and sports columnist, and covers Bradley men’s basketball, the Rivermen and Chiefs. He writes the Cleve In The Eve sports column for pjstar.com. He can be reached at deminian@pjstar.com. Follow him on X.com @icetimecleve.
This article originally appeared on Journal Star: Long-ago Peoria Rivermen foe joins SPHL for 2026-27 season
Reporting by Dave Eminian, Peoria Journal Star / Journal Star
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