Coralville, Iowa- The Heartlanders have just announced that their first game of the 2023-24 regular season will now be played a day earlier than originally anticipated, with Saturday, October 21st’s game now being set to drop the puck on Thursday, October 19 at 6:35 pm CT. All tickets that were purchased for the game originally scheduled for Saturday the 21st will now be valid for the Thursday opening night.
This will now be the third consecutive season where Iowa opens its season at home on a Thursday.
Iowa claims that this decision is to respect local Hawkeye fans who will be attending the 2:30 pm CT Iowa Football game in Iowa City, as well as ensuring that all required services for the team and arena are up to standard for the game, as Xtream Arena and Kinnick Stadium share resources, service providers, and staffing, such as medical staff, concessions, and security.
The Heartlanders have also announced that they will plan accordingly with their scheduled home games on Saturday, November 11th, and Saturday, November 18th in order to ensure that they can play their game on those scheduled days and not have to reschedule for similar reasons.
This plan also involves the motivation of bringing fans from Kinnick Stadium to Xtream Arena and having a day supporting Iowa sports, between the Hawkeyes and Heartlanders.
Iowa has just begun its ECHL training camp and will play exhibition games at Fort Wayne on Saturday, October 14th, and Sunday, October 15th, with the opening regular season games being against the Rapid City Rush.
The Iowa Heartlanders’ Full Statement on this decision can be found below:
“We believe in providing our fans and our players with the best experience possible, and these things go hand-in-hand with the services we provide. Keeping our game on Saturday would not have been possible due to staffing limitations affecting game operations and player safety as a result of the announced 2:30 p.m. kickoff time of the Iowa Football Game on Saturday, Oct. 21. Many of the service providers used at Xtream Arena are also utilized at the University of Iowa’s home football games.
Similar to the Hawkeyes, we believe in top-notch care for our athletes and the best in entertainment for our fans. We utilize Wired Production Group/HawkVision at Xtream Arena for our video production, the Johnson County Ambulance Service for our EMS, and recently struck a deal with University of Iowa Hospitals & Clinics to provide doctors and medical care for our players. These 3 groups are the “best of the best” in their respective areas of expertise. Since our ownership change officially took place, we have worked to find a solution for this game, but we also understand you cannot have two groups using these services at the same time and we will not shortchange our fans by risking fan and player safety. Additionally, just like you, we want to support the University of Iowa’s incredible fans and electric atmosphere at Kinnick Stadium as much as you do on the Saturday, October 21 game against Minnesota at 2:30 p.m.
We have also worked to ensure our games scheduled for Saturday, November 11 and Saturday, November 18 do not pose staffing and safety conflicts and will be played on those scheduled days.”
