Hockey disappearing act

shutterCat7 Not an Ice Bat, but a bat. 

Last week the Austin Ice Bats told me via email that they will no longer be playing at Chaparral Ice and that they’re “currently looking for an acceptable location in the Austin area” for next season. Not bad, I thought. Chaparral Ice was a nice venue, but the relationship between building and sports franchise never really caught on. I get the feeling nobody ever drove by and thought to themselves, “that’s my home for hockey.”

The real bad news was dropped in the next paragraph. The organization “will investigate relocating the team outside of this area if needed.”

Now this, I said to myself, is story-worthy. I’m going to call the people in charge, I’m going to email their marketing director, I’m going to figure out what kind of efforts are being made to keep Austin’s original pro sports team in Austin.

I headed to the official team website and pulled up the contact page. I called their main line and got the “this line has been disconnected” robot. I emailed their marketing director, and it bounced back immediately. I called Chaparral Ice, who had no clue what happened to the team, except that they are no longer affiliated with each other.

I’m going to file a missing person’s report if I don’t hear anything soon. And if it turns out the Ice Bats are dead, I’ll post information on the funeral.