Jacksonville Lizard Kings

TheJacksonville Lizard Kingswere a professionalice hockeyteam based inJacksonville, Florida.Formerly known as theLouisville Icehawks,they played in theEast Coast Hockey League(ECHL) from 1995–2000. They played their home games in theJacksonville Coliseum.

Jacksonville Lizard Kings
City	Jacksonville, Florida
League	ECHL
Conference	American Conference
Division	Southeast Division
Founded	1995
Folded	2000
Home arena	Jacksonville Coliseum
Colors	Black, Green, Purple
Affiliate	Chicago Blackhawks(NHL)
Franchise history
1990–1994	Louisville Icehawks
1995–2000	Jacksonville Lizard Kings
Championships
Regular season titles	None
Division titles	None
Kelly Cups	None (Runner up, 1995)

History

The Lizard Kings began play in theEast Coast Hockey Leagueas theLouisville Icehawks,based inLouisville, Kentucky.They played in Louisville from 1990 until 1994, but suspended operations after the 1993–94 season, and the organization decided to relocate toJacksonville, Florida.

The team, now rebranded as the Jacksonville Lizard Kings, promoted themselves in their new city with a substantial marketing campaign, including television ads featuring agoaliecatching a puck with a lizard tongue. They faced some competition from another local hockey team, theJacksonville Bullets,but were able to secure a lease to theJacksonville Coliseum,and became Jacksonville's only professional hockey team when the Bullets folded in 1996. Despite their advertising the Lizard Kings were not able to cover their operating costs, and lost $2.2 million over four years. The management determined they would not be viable in the aging Jacksonville Coliseum, and decided to suspend operations in 2000 in anticipation of the construction of the newJacksonville Veterans Memorial Arena.The team eventually ceased operations.

In 2002 a new team, theJacksonville Barracudas,began play in the Coliseum and secured a contract for the new arena, completed in 2003.