Looking back to the night pro ice hockey finally arrived in Leeds when the Chiefs took on Sheffield Steeldogs in the first-ever game at Elland Road Ice Arena back on January 31, 2020 ...
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00:00Sam, the day's here, the big moment that seems to have been a long way off for most of the
00:14season for you.
00:15How does it feel that in a few hours you're going to be skating out on that ice at Ellon
00:19Road?
00:20Yeah, it's a little bit surreal.
00:21As you say, it has been a long time coming.
00:23The start of September feels like forever ago in a way, but I'm happy that we've managed
00:28to keep the core of the team together and most of the guys that started this journey
00:32get to see it through and now we've finally moved into the rink.
01:58Just on the night as a whole, I think it was a bit of a mad dash trying to finish bits
02:16and pieces off at the rink.
02:18Obviously, as everyone can see who's been here tonight, it's not fully open and it's
02:21going to be a few weeks before it gets some more season and maybe get that crowd up to
02:25a thousand.
02:26Just the mood in those minutes before stepping out on the ice, were there a few nerves in
02:33your room?
02:34I don't know if there were nerves, but there was a lot of excitement and maybe a little
02:39bit of tension at times.
02:40It's been a long time coming and the guys wanted to seize the moment.
02:44As I say, it's unfortunate we couldn't get the result that we wanted tonight, but it's
02:49great to see that the stand that was open there packed like they're after us and obviously
02:53it looks like the interest is here so we just need to make sure we can put on a show for
02:56them in the remaining home games.
02:57As I say, it's a home crowd, it was a proper home crowd.
03:01You've obviously played home games elsewhere, I think seven other venues before you actually
03:04made it home proper, but it would have made a nice change for you guys to have the bulk
03:10of the crowd actually behind you rather than 30 or 40 people at another rink somewhere
03:14else.
03:15Yeah, definitely.
03:16Some of the games we've had 10 or 12 people there watching and they make an amazing amount
03:20of noise, but obviously when you've got 600-plus in the building there it's a lot more atmospheric
03:27and obviously when the place is fully open there's going to be a 2,000 capacity, so if
03:32we can get anywhere near that I think it's going to be a hell of a place to play a game
03:35of hockey.
03:36It's going to be tough for teams coming in, playing in that kind of atmosphere, they'll
03:39be part of that atmosphere I think at times.
03:41The Leeds sporting fans are obviously renowned for the passion they have for their team,
03:45so if we get any kind of degree for that then I think we'll be in for a noisy building.
03:50Yeah, absolutely.
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