NAHL’s Wichita Falls Warriors Reportedly Moving to Oklahoma City

As we near the end of the 2021-22 hockey season, reports are beginning to appear regarding teams’ statuses for the coming season. That includes the North American Hockey League’s Wichita Falls Warriors, who are reportedly moving to Oklahoma City, beginning with the 2022-23 season.

The news comes from heishockey.com, as they report the Warriors are headed to OKC, and subsequently, the current OKC Ice Hawks NA3HL team will be heading to New Mexico.

The Warriors are in their second season of play in the NAHL, as hockey returned to the area following a rocky experience with the short-lived USACHL’s Wichita Falls Force. The team is also the city’s second run in the NAHL, as the Wichita Falls Wildcats ceased operations in 2017 after 15 seasons. The first years of the Wildcats garnered an average attendance of around 2,000 per game, but saw that fall to just over 1,000 by the franchise’s end.

Attendance has been even more stringent for the Warriors, averaging only 457 fans per game as of the time of posting, playing out of the Kay Yeager Coliseum that has a capacity of over 7,000 seats. This year’s attendance stands out even more when compared to the 2020-21 COVID-impacted season that had an average attendance of 1,217.

This season has seen it’s share of troubles with the arena as well, as the team saw a home weekend postponed due to ice plant issues, as well as a change in management with the city of Wichita Falls.

With still another month of regular season play for the NAHL, any official news will likely not be announced until the season and subsequent playoffs are completed.