Patrick Williams, TheAHL.com Options Author
Facility. Logistics and site. Lodge house. A entrance workplace able to taking over a serious venture.
The Rockford IceHogs may tick all of these containers after which some, and that’s the reason they are going to be internet hosting the 2026 AHL All-Star Classic presented by BMO subsequent February.
“It truly is, together with the Calder Cup Finals, the marquee signature occasion for the American Hockey League,” President and CEO Scott Howson mentioned at a information convention held at BMO Heart on Monday.
The 2-day occasion is televised reside throughout North America and streamed worldwide. Because it was revived in 1995, greater than 94 % of its members have superior to the Nationwide Hockey League. And subsequent yr’s festivities can even be a key signature level of the AHL’s Ninetieth-anniversary season in addition to the Chicago Blackhawks’ centennial.
“It’s been a very long time coming,” IceHogs president of hockey operations and common supervisor Mark Bernard mentioned Monday. “That is going to be an amazing alternative to indicate the remainder of the league what Rockford is.”
As has been the case in some earlier Olympic years, the 2026 AHL All-Star Traditional will go together with a Tuesday-Wednesday set-up, with the Expertise Competitors on February 10 AHL Corridor of Fame Induction and Awards Ceremony and the All-Star Problem on February 11. With the NHL calendar quiet throughout the Olympics – the boys’s ice hockey event will get underway Feb. 11 in Milan – additional consideration will likely be given to the AHL’s annual get-together.
BMO Heart, the IceHogs’ residence and a constructing already identified for its glorious sightlines, just lately underwent $27 million of renovations to its infrastructure, know-how, concourse and premium areas. Scoreboard, ribbon-board, sound and lighting enhancements have been among the many adjustments. These upgrades got here because the Chicago Blackhawks bought the IceHogs from town of Rockford in a 2021 deal that can hold the membership on the town via not less than 2036. The constructing, which opened in 1981, had already undergone greater than $23 million of refurbishments in 2007 earlier than the Blackhawks introduced their AHL affiliate to Rockford.
Past hockey, the world has a gentle calendar that features Disney On Ice and Cirque du Soleil within the subsequent month alone.
“It’s been a number of work to get the constructing to look this fashion,” BMO Heart common supervisor Gretchen Gilmore mentioned at Monday’s announcement. She thought again to a number of the earliest casual discussions about procuring the occasion for Rockford in 2021. “It was a dream at the moment,” she recalled, “to get the constructing and get us to some extent the place we may host an occasion like this. Right now our dream has come true.”
The 2026 AHL All-Star Traditional would be the first time that the occasion will happen within the Midwest since Grand Rapids hosted in 2004. With Rockford’s central location, followers in Chicago, Grand Rapids, Iowa and Milwaukee are all inside comparatively simple driving distance of Rockford. And direct flights can be found from almost each AHL market throughout america and Canada to O’Hare Worldwide Airport, just a little greater than hour’s drive away.
“These fan bases journey rather well, and hopefully these followers are enthusiastic about coming right here,” Mike Peck, the group’s vice chairman of promoting, content material and operations, mentioned. “It’s form of in everybody’s yard right here within the Midwest.”
These followers – to not point out gamers, coaches, workers, households, VIP’s and 1000’s of different company – will want a spot to spend a number of nights. New lodge house has been constructed currently, a must have for this sort of occasion.
Lastly comes having a superb entrance workplace. Howson disclosed Monday that the IceHogs are main the AHL in ticket income development at 28 % year-over-year.
“They’ve accomplished an amazing job,” IceHogs president of enterprise operations Ryan Snider mentioned of the entrance workplace. “They’re those which are actually doing the heavy raise to ship outcomes. This occasion wouldn’t come off with out them.”
Loads of work stays to be accomplished within the subsequent 13 months earlier than the occasion is a go. There will likely be a Rockford contingent on the bottom at this yr’s All-Star Traditional within the Coachella Valley this Feb. 2-3. Being there will likely be a possibility to get an up-close have a look at the logistical concerns and desires that include internet hosting.
Then it is going to be again to Rockford and a full-speed push to February 2026. It’s a number of further work on prime of the day-to-day work that goes into the season already, Peck acknowledged. However having spoken with colleagues throughout the league whose golf equipment have hosted earlier than, their consensus is that the additional effort is greater than price it.
And so the AHL will come to Rockford, however the folks from throughout the league will depart understanding what day-one workers like Peck and Bernard have lengthy identified about their metropolis.
“The cool factor about coming to a market like Rockford,” Peck mentioned, “is that the city will embrace it.”
Mentioned Howson, “I can really feel the power constructing already.”
On the American Hockey League beat for twenty years, TheAHL.com options author Patrick Williams additionally presently covers the league for NHL.com and FloSports and is a daily contributor on SiriusXM NHL Community Radio. He was the recipient of the AHL’s James H. Ellery Memorial Award for his excellent protection of the league in 2016.
