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July 6, 2004

Coors Light Is Title Sponsor for ECHL All-Star Game, Skills Competition In Reading, Pennsylvania January 25-26



PRINCETON, N.J. - The Reading Royals in association with the ECHL on Tuesday announced that Coors Light will be the title sponsor for the 13th Annual ECHL All-Star Game and Skills Competition.

"We are extremely pleased to be the title sponsor for the 2005 ECHL showcase event which will bring national exposure to Reading and Coors Light," said Dave Kissling, Director of Business Development for All-Star Distributing. "Events such as this one are not common in our market. We are looking forward to being a part of a top notch experience for the players and fans of the ECHL."

The 2005 Coors Light ECHL All-Star Game will be played at the 7,215-seat Sovereign Center in Reading, Pa. The skills competition will be held on January 25 and the game will be played on January 26.

The official logo for the 2005 Coors Light ECHL All-Star Game was released on Tuesday.

The 2005 Coors Light ECHL All-Star Game logo features a crown for the host Reading Royals. The colors are navy, silver, red and white and the logo includes the verbiage “2005 ECHL All-Star Game” and “Reading, Pa” with “Presented By Coors Light” underneath the crown.

"We are honored to have Coors Light as the title sponsor of the ECHL’s showcase event. All-Star Distributing has been a long-standing partner of the Reading Royals and we feel that their involvement is going to make this a fantastic evening for hockey fans throughout the region," said Ray Delia, General Manager and Governor of the Royals. "We are excited to have the opportunity to bring our fans not only the Coors Light ECHL All-Star Game, but all the entertainment that surrounds this wonderful event."

For the second consecutive season, Reading ranked second in the ECHL in both regular season average attendance (5,371 per game) and regular season total attendance (193,367). The Royals ranked third in both postseason average attendance (4,781 per game) and postseason total attendance (28,691).

The Reading Royals (www.royalshockey.com) are affiliated with the Los Angeles Kings of the National Hockey League and the Manchester Monarchs of the American Hockey League. For the first time in its three-year history, Reading qualified for the Kelly Cup Playoffs in 2004. The No. 5 Seed in the Northern Conference, the Royals advanced to the Eastern Conference Finals before losing in five games to Florida.

Began in 1988 with five teams in three states, the ECHL welcomed nine new markets in 2003-04 and played with 31 teams in 17 states across five time zones. In 2004-05, the league will play with 30 teams in 17 states and one Canadian province as it welcomes the Victoria Salmon Kings, who become first ECHL team outside of the United States, playing in Victoria, British Columbia. Beginning on October 22 and concluding on April 9, 2005, each of the teams will play a 72-game schedule comprised of 36 home and 36 road games.

The Premier "AA" Hockey League, the ECHL had affiliation agreements with 21 of the 30 teams in the NHL and 21 of the 28 teams in the AHL in 2003-04.

For the fifth consecutive year the ECHL is represented on the Stanley Cup Champion with Ruslan Fedotenko, Nolan Pratt and Andre Roy as well as radio play-by-play announcer Dave Mishkin and assistant equipment manager Dana Heinze all part of the Tampa Bay Lightning. The three players are the most ECHL representatives, surpassing 2001 when David Aebischer and Pratt helped Colorado win the title, and brings the total number of ECHL alumni on the Stanley Cup to nine. Pratt becomes the first ECHL player to have his name engraved twice on the Stanley Cup, earning the honor for the first time in 2001.

For the 15th consecutive season, an ECHL player is a member of the American Hockey League’s Calder Cup Champion. In addition to Claude Noel, who is in his first season as head coach, Milwaukee has eight players and radio announcer Kyle Schultz, who are all alumni of the ECHL.


Jon Cole
Media Relations Director
Greensboro Generals
(336) 373-7402 (office)