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Phoenix suffer further delay

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Manchester Phoenix's hopes of staging their opening home game on Sunday were again dashed due to problems with the ice surface. Despite around-the-clock efforts by the refrigeration team and ice engineers, a decision to again postpone the first game in the Altrincham Ice Dome had to be taken.

An engineer commented, "when we made the recommendation to postpone Saturday's game, we were very confident of Sunday going ahead. The ice was going down well and the temperature inside the building was coming down as well. But, despite the team working non-stop, on Sunday morning we still had areas of the ice surface giving us cause for concern."

Phoenix GM Andy Costigan stated, "we were prepared on just about all fronts to stage the game against the Vipers. The seating is installed fully on one side of the building and to a large extent on the other; the public address system was ready; matchnight programmes have been produced; we even had hotdog machines delivered and operational."

He continued, "However the bottom line was that even with six hours remaining before the game was due to begin, the ice engineers could not categorically guarantee that the surface would be playable for a full game. Had we started and then had to abandon the game, it would have been a disastrous start for the Dome. Disappointingly, the only sensible and responsible decision Neil could take was to advise the league, the Vipers and as many people as we could quickly, that the game was having to be postponed."

Phoenix will now endeavour to re-arrange one of the two postponed fixtures to take place this week, but won't be able to confirm before Tuesday. All tickets purchased for this weekends games will remain valid for use on the new game dates when confirmed and announced.

Phoenix MD Neil Morris added, "this is another setback, but I believe I've made the right decision in the best interest of the fans and players of all three clubs this weekend. We were desperate to play and now we'll do whatever we can do to get a game in this week at some time. Both Edinburgh and Newcastle have been tremendously understanding and indeed sympathetic to the situation and fixture rearrangements will be confirmed as quickly as possible."