📍 Orlando, Florida
🏒 Home of the Orlando Solar Bears

The only ECHL franchise to share a venue with an NBA team, the Orlando Solar Bears are one of the main tenants of the sparkling Kia Center, the entertainment hub of The City Beautiful’s downtown core. And while the sport may not be the first thought on the mind of central Floridians, the Solar Bears’ home is often filled with a crowd that knows this isn’t just novelty hockey in the Sunshine State.

Kia Center can hold just over 17,000 for hockey, though the upper bowl is almost always curtained off and inaccessible. The building opened in 2010 to replace the aging Amway Arena, a decidedly lackluster coliseum that was located a few blocks north. A far more modern venue that’s both versatile and amenity-rich, Kia Center sits just across Interstate 4 from downtown Orlando, separated but not disconnected from the heart of the city.

The Solar Bears name originates with the International Hockey League franchise that played in the city from 1995 until 2001. Orlando was also home to the SPHL’s Seals between 2002 and 2004, but affiliated minor league hockey was revived for the 2012-13 season when an ECHL expansion club came to town and re-adopted the Solar Bears moniker.

The Solar Bears are currently affiliated with the nearby Tampa Bay Lightning, but have previously had agreements in place with the Minnesota Wild and Toronto Maple Leafs. The Bears have competed in the playoffs in 7 out of their 12 seasons, advancing to the second round on four occasions but falling each time to the Florida Everblades, their dominant intra-state foe.

For a hockey team based not only in Florida but also in the nation’s entertainment capital, the Solar Bears have done well on the ice and at the gate, something visitors and Orlandoans alike are hoping will continue for the foreseeable future.