The Heartlanders, Coralville’s first professional hockey team, will open their season at Xtream Arena in October.
Minnesota Wild General Manager Bill Guerin talks at press conference held at the Xtream Arena on Thursday June,17, 2021. Guerin was in Coralville to announce the new affiliation with the NHL, Minnesota Wild and the Coralville ECHL team Heartlanders hockey team.
For generations, Iowa City and Coralville sports fans have gathered at Kinnick Stadium, Carver-Hawkeye Arena, and other Iowa City sports venues to view high school and collegiate sports. As a professional sports team in an area lacking them, the Iowa Heartlanders are entering uncharted territory for the local sports scene.
The newly announced East Coast Hockey League team will begin play in October at Xtream Arena in Coralville — the same venue as the Iowa volleyball program.
To accommodate the Hawkeye volleyball team, the Heartlanders will be holding most of their practices publicly at the Coral Ridge Mall.
Nearby, Cedar Rapids hosts several minor league teams. The Cedar Rapids Kernels provide professional baseball and the Rough Riders supply amateur hockey to the area. But for University of Iowa students, the Heartlanders are the most convenient option.
The regular season features 72 games spanning from October 2021 to April 2022, with 36 games at Xtream Arena. So, the Heartlanders’ season will coincide with Iowa’s winter sports.
Iowa City is the definition of a college town, as 35,000 students flock to the University of Iowa campus, blistering the 75,000-person population.
Iowa wrestling, along with men’s and women’s basketball, typically draw large crowds of both students and citizens during the winter months. In the 2019-20 season, the Hawkeye wrestling team set an NCAA attendance record at Carver-Hawkeye Arena, with almost 88,000 spectators across 12 home matches.
For UI junior Kay Swanson, the Heartlanders remind her of good memories back in her hometown of St. Louis.
“Being from the St. Louis area, the Blues hockey team creates a unified dynamic amongst those in the area,” she said. “There is no hockey team here at the university, so having a mid-level hockey team in the area would attract a lot of people who want to watch it, including myself.”
The ECHL averages over 4,000 fans per game — Xtream Arena has a capacity of 5,100.
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