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Madison lands USHL Member Club for 2014-15

The junior hockey league returns to Madison for the first time since 1995.

By Mike Fiammetta
straightedge217-Flickr

Beginning in 2014, Madison will become even more of a hockey town with the addition of a United States Hockey League Member Club, which the league rewarded to Wisconsin's capital city on Monday.

Beginning with the 2014-15 season, a yet-to-be-named club will play its home games at the Veterans Memorial Coliseum at the Alliant Energy Center subject to final lease approval by the Dane County Board of Supervisors. The team will be owned and operated by Madtown Hockey, LLC, a consortium of veteran and new USHL owners.

"We're excited to welcome USHL hockey back to the Coliseum after nearly 20 years," Dane County Executive Joe Parisi said in a release. "We know that, together with USHL hockey, we can provide an exciting experience for fans. This partnership is yet another reason why the Alliant Energy Center remains such an important contributor to Dane County's regional economy, and continues to offer world-class entertainment for residents and visitors."

The team will be named via a contest to be announced later this year, and it will participate as a league member at the board and committee levels, bringing the USHL's total membership to a record-high 17 teams. Garrity and Quan Sports will begin assembling a senior management team as the team prepares for the 2014-15 season. Team offices will also be located at the Alliant Energy Center.

The team will be named via a contest to be announced later this year. Members of the Madtown Hockey, LLC, ownership group include Tom Garrity, CEO of Quan Sports Management and a Prairie du Chien, Wis., native, chairman Saul Treiman Charles Bidwill, III, Jeffrey Krol, Brian Schoenborn and Greg Scott.

Madison last had a professional hockey team in 1995, before the Wisconsin Capitols left town. Prior to becoming the Wisconsin Capitols, the city's USHL team was known as the Madison Capitols from 1984-91. Altogether, the Capitols won over 200 games while based in Madison, including a team-record 33 games in both the 1986-87 and 1988-89 seasons under coach Scott Owens, now the head coach at Colorado College.

"We've been working on this project for the past nine months in order to insure the USHL returns to Madison as a successful Member Club," USHL president and commissioner Skip Prince said. "We're almost there. Madison has changed and grown over the past twenty years - as has the USHL - but the city has retained a rich hockey tradition and a passionate fan base we think will be thrilled by the caliber of hockey and player the USHL will bring to Veterans Memorial Coliseum. It's good to come back home."

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