San Francisco Bulls, Part 2.

The ECHL waited until today to make its formal announcement about the San Francisco Bulls joining the league in 2012-13.

It appears one small correction is in order: Pat Curcio, former assistant coach of the Ontario Hockey League’s London Knights, leads the ownership group, not Shmuel Farhi. Farhi and media personality Jim Chapman are “also part of the group,” per the team’s official release.

Curcio will also be the team’s head coach and general manager.

San Francisco Bulls almost up and running. Update.

The ECHL Board of Governors approved the addition of an expansion team, the San Francisco Bulls, to begin play in 2012-13. David Pollak, the Sharks beat writer for the San Jose Mercury News, wrote on Twitter that the Bulls will play in the Cow Palace, the Sharks’ home arena in 1991-92 and 1992-93.

Few other details are available at this moment, including who will own the team and how the Bulls will fit in to an eight-team Western Conference. Reign President Justin Kemp is at the Board meeting in Atlanta and wasn’t immediately available for comment.

Kemp has repeatedly said in the past that the Western Conference was hoping to expand (the Eastern Conference has 12 teams by contrast), but never mentioned San Francisco as a potential market. So it’s likely that the ownership group was a recent entry into the ECHL foray.

Update: Kemp gave me some more details about the Bulls, most of which will appear in tomorrow’s editions of the Sun and Daily Bulletin. He said that he wasn’t aware of the ownership group’s emergence until the Board of Governors agenda crossed his desk “about a week ago.” All but one of the 20 Governors approved the Bulls’ membership.

Here’s what else we know about the team:

Continue reading “San Francisco Bulls almost up and running. Update.” »