Athens' new professional hockey team will open its season in October, but fans in the Classic City will have to wait a while before seeing the Rock Lobsters play on home ice.
The Rock Lobsters are scheduled to play 11 games on the road before their first home game on Dec. 6 against the Blue Ridge Bobcats.
They will be performing in the new $151 million Classical Center Arena, which will also host concerts, seminars and major events, and is currently in the final stages of construction.
Athens will play its opener at the Monroe (La.) Moccasins on Oct. 11 and 12 before playing at Blue Ridge the following week.
The Rock Lobsters will play 28 games at home in the 56-game season that runs through April, with eight of their nine games in December coming at Classic Center Arena.
The Rock Lobsters will compete in the Federal Prospects Hockey League, an 11-team federation that stretches from the Canadian border to the Gulf of Mexico and includes another Georgia team, the Columbus River Dragons, according to FPHL President Donald Kiernan.
The team announced last month that former NHL player Steve Martinson would become the team's first coach.
Martinson played 49 games in hockey's top league and more than 400 games in the AHL and IHL, leading the AHL in penalty minutes during the 1985-86 season.
The Rock Lobsters are advertising a season of “thrilling matches, hard-fought battles and professional hockey on the road to Athens.”
