We met last night as the Board of Directors of Milton Keynes Ice Hockey Club and agreed unanimously that we will be remaining in the NIHL National League for the 2020/21 Season.  Earlier today we informed our players, staff, shareholders, advisors and sponsors.  We also engaged with the Supporters Club to re-affirm our commitment to working with them, as well as to agree with them that given the material nature of this news with multiple different groups involved we were not able to share this with Gold Members as far in advance as we would have liked, but have been able to give a brief preview.

We’ve made this decision in the best interests of the club and would like to share with you our reasoning:

Stability: we want to focus on the longer term development of all hockey in Milton Keynes and build deeper collaboration with Thunder, Storm, Falcons and Rec teams as the hockey family.  We believe the best approach is a multi-year commitment to Lightning and the wider MK hockey community.  Part of this is an intent to build a strategic investment plan for all teams, not just Lightning
Clarity: our team has many stakeholders including players, staff, the League, volunteers, sponsors, the Supporters Club and fans. We want to provide more certainty to all these groups to allow them to make their own decisions – which we will work with them on – around planning, investment and operations. Early and long term clarity of our league plans helps this
Timing: we have made this decision now because it helps the club start right now to build for next year and beyond. We will be able to secure key personnel, put in place longer, deeper and stronger commercial partnerships and further build out the operational infrastructure that the club needs to run successfully.
League relationship: we have had an ongoing dialogue with the Elite League and are very grateful for their input and support in making this decision. We have also started to collaborate well with our NIHL league partners and want to continue to build and shape this league with them

We recognise that this is a decision which cannot please all of our fans, but we can assure you that we have done this with the best interests of the club at heart.  Thank you as ever for your amazing support for the boys on and off the ice.

Claire, Tom, Matt, Anna and Jon

The Board of MK Ice Hockey Club