📍 Bloomington, Illinois
🏒 Home of the Bloomington Bison

Grossinger Motors Arena, a 6,000-seat venue in downtown Bloomington, Illinois, has hosted professional and junior hockey on and off since its grand opening in 2006. After a short hiatus, the sport returned to the region with the arrival of the Bloomington Bison, an expansion franchise in the ECHL that began play in the 2024-25 season and marked the first affiliated hockey club in central Illinois in almost twenty years.

The venue’s first tenant was the Bloomington Prairie Thunder, who competed in the International Hockey League and Central Hockey League until 2011. They were replaced by another CHL team called the Blaze – later rechristened the Thunder – who would compete for two seasons before spending a year in the SPHL and then folding. The Central Illinois Flying Aces of the USHL took up the mantle as Bloomington’s hockey team during their tenure in town from 2014 to 2019. Since 2021, the varsity hockey club from Normal’s Illinois State University have also skated at the arena.

Grossinger is a stereotypical hockey venue that’s laid out for a generic spread of events such as concerts, shows and the occasional game. The Look Out Lounge overlooking the adjoining ice center and the group hangout space with a full bar help spice up the arena’s otherwise vanilla design.

While Bloomington is located halfway between Chicago and St. Louis, the Bison are surprisingly affiliated with neither the Blackhawks nor the Blues. Their relationship is instead with the New York Rangers and the Hartford Wolf Pack of the AHL, an agreement slated to last for the first five years of the team’s existence.

Although the Bison have not had much time to make a lasting impression on the city of Bloomington, enduring some attendance struggles during their first season of play, there’s hope that the ECHL’s newest team will prosper here in Central Illinois and become a stalwart Midwest market for the league.