Sheffield Steelers
| Sheffield Steelers | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| City | Sheffield, England |
| League | Elite Ice Hockey League |
| Founded | 1991 |
| Operated | Rhino Sports |
| Home arena | Sheffield Arena |
| Colours |
Orange, Black and Blue |
| Owner(s) |
 Tony Smith |
| General manager |
 Paul Thompson
|
| Head coach |
Paul Thompson
|
| Captain |
Jonathan Phillips
|
| Championships | |
| Regular season titles | 1994–95, 1995–96, 2000–01, 2002–03, 2003–04, 2008–09, 2010–11, 2014–15, 2015-16 |
| Autumn Cups | 1995–96, 2000–01 |
| Challenge Cups | 1998–99, 1999–00, 2000–01, 2002–03 |
| Playoff championships | 1994–95, 1995–96, 1996–97, 2000–01, 2001–02, 2003–04, 2007–08, 2008–09, 2013–14, 2016-17 |
Orange, Black and Blue
The Sheffield Steelers are a professional ice hockey team located in Sheffield, England. It was formed in 1991 (see 1991 in sport) and plays its home games at the Sheffield Arena. It is currently a member of the Elite Ice Hockey League. The club's main (title) sponsor is Sheffield Window Centre. They are current Champions following their Play-Off victory on 9th April 2017.
Ice Hockey existed in amateur form in Sheffield, but the sport began its return to an era of arenas and stadium size crowds with the opening of the Sheffield Arena in 1991 and the creation of the Sheffield Steelers — the ice hockey team that was to occupy the new arena. The Sheffield Arena was built as part of the city's facilities for the staging of the World Student Games, and is a sizeable stadium originally seating 8,500 and located close to the city centre. Ronnie Wood and David Gardener-Brown were at the helm as the Marketing Director at the club and set about promoting ice hockey to a city raised on the footballing success of Sheffield United and Sheffield Wednesday. Wood had a specific target, seeking to attract children and families to the city's new sporting Arena. As he stated in an interview in Liam Sluyter's A Game of Three Halves (Mainstream Publishing, 1998), "we were sending guys around schools. We wrote to all the schools in Sheffield and said 'Bring the kids, see the Arena, sit down, experience the whole thing'". They also began taking players to local football matches and parading them around the ground with mascots in an attempt to pull in football fans too. Another marketing ploy was to give certain players nicknames to help the crowd associate with the new (and as yet unknown) players. This idea was hatched by the announcer Dave Simms.
The Steelers were named in honour of Sheffield's industrial past, much like the American football team of the same name based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and the sharing of nicknames are merely a coincidence. The American football team actually predates Sheffield's team by 58 years and was already popular worldwide due to their dominance in the National Football League in the 1970s. Sheffield and Pittsburgh are considered sister cities.
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