By WMBD-TV
BLOOMINGTON – On Thursday night, with less than 40 days until the puck drops the Bloomington Bison revealed the team jerseys.
“There’s still a little bit of apprehension in the community about hockey not being successful here in the past. And people not understanding this is a different level of hockey,” said Co-Owner Sean Hallett.
Season ticket holders sampled food expected to be served this season. During a Q&A session, fans asked the head coach about his coaching history, hopes for the upcoming season and his desire for the team to be a family connecting with the community.
“What can I contribute to this? How can we connect with the community? If you go into it with that kind of attitude, then I believe all your needs will be taken care of and you’ll get exponentially more out of that,” said Head Coach Phillip Barski. “So, that’s something that’s really important to us as a staff and something that’s going to permeate down to our players.”
In a moment of transparency, Hallett shared business updates about staffing, merchandise and sponsorships.
“You know some teams get announced two years in advance and have two years of preparation going into a season. This literally all started five months ago,” he said. “It’s been five months trying to build out a team. But you know what I’m happy to say as of today we’re fully staffed.”
After the reveal, Bison fans purchased jerseys for their families. The Skelding family of four has only been in Bloomington for close to a year but they want to start a family tradition with the Bloomington Bison.
“We’re not even really hockey fans, to be honest, but we wanted to kind of buy in first year of the team and we’re fired up,” said Cameron Skelding. “We’re sports fans for sure. I wanted to fully buy into the team and kind of get it off on the right feet, you know? So, years from now, my children can grow up as fans and just have fun family time. So, that’s what we’re looking for.”
There are almost 800 season ticket holders. The first puck drop for the Bison’s regular season is October 19 against the Toledo Walleye.
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