Akwesasne – There was a press conference today at the A’nowara’ko:wa Arena to officially announce that the Akwesasne Warriors are joining the Federal Hockey League whose innaugural season will commence this November.
Commissioner Don Kirman joined league officials, team management and Grand Chief Mike Mitchell at the ceremony.
The Warriors will be the fourth team announced for the fledgling hockey league that originally were looking at Cornwall Ontario as a location, but apparently ice availability and marketing rights in the Cornwall Civic Complex led to the opportunity to use the facility in Akwesasne. Negotiations were expedited and led to an agreement Sunday and announcement today.
video excerpts from the press conference:
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OJQsaMbdr5k
Akwesasne joins Danbury Connecticut, Rome NY, Alexandria Bay NY, and about to be announced Brooklyn NY. The league is looking to ice six teams in their inaugural season. It would be amazing to see Cornwall get a team as the rivalry would be electric between Akwesasne and Cornwall.
The league features 20-30 year old players with a salary cap of $5,050 per week with a roster of 17 players (expanded to 20 for the first six games and after March 1st and the league is looking at a sixty game season which begins Friday November 5th, 2010.
Tickets will range in the $7-$15 with season tickets available soon. Akwesasne is owned by Ottawa resident Basem Awwad with Pat Post as the GM/Director of Hockey Operations.
The Warriors team can be reached via email at bawwad@akwesasnewarriors.com
