Belle Vue Aces – A Night at the Ice Hockey

[BarracudaAce]

 

I attended the Manchester Storm v Cardiff Devils ice hockey match at the AO Arena in Manchester city centre on Sunday (1 November 2026) – and so did the majority of the Belle Vue Aces!!

When I arrived at my seat, the big screen above the ice rink displayed ‘Today’s Game Sponsor’ with the Aces logo below it.

Not having seen or heard anything about this happening, I was quite surprised.

Before an ice hockey match, the two team captains and, usually, representatives of the game sponsors take part in a ceremonial puck drop. So, after both teams entered the rink, came the announcement:-

‘Today’s Game Sponsor is the Belle Vue Aces Speedway Team, the 2026 Premiership Champions. Please welcome out onto the ice Brady Kurtz and Norick Blodorn.’

My seat was on the back row of the lower tier with one of the hospitality boxes directly behind it. When there was a break in play after a few minutes, I thought I heard the familiar dulcet tones of Norick Blodorn behind me, and so I turned to look over and there indeed was Norick and Brady Kurtz – with Brady sporting a Storm replica away shirt.

Then I could see Mark Lemon; Zach Cook; Tate Zischke and William Cairns were there also – along with a couple of faces I did not recognise. I wonder if one might have been ‘Chase The Ace’ in civvies??

I managed to exchange a few words with Brady & Norick during the break at the end of the first period, and the chap near me asked ‘Do you know those guys?’ I replied, ’They're members of the Belle Vue Aces speedway team, tonight’s sponsor’.

‘I’m not sure I know what that is’ he said, ‘Are they actually based in Manchester?’ I wasn’t sure then whether to laugh or cry!! LOL!!

Anyhow, the drinks must have been flowing freely, as the cheering from the Aces box got louder and louder as the match progressed. Norick seemed to be acting as cheer leader as they were all joining in with the 'Let's go Storm, let's go' chants.

Finally, at the end of the match, the man-of-the-match presentations (one player from each team) were done by Mark Lemon and Zach Cook.

Maybe it wasn't the best time in the Ice Hockey season for this to have happened? The season goes on until May/June, so had the Aces done a sponsorship in e.g. late March, it would have been just about the perfect time to have incorporated some Aces ticket marketing to get some newbies (like that chap near me) to go along to the NSS and witness some speedway?

 

[Diamonds85]

Ice hockey... Now there's a proper sport. Completely taken over my life from speedway 6 or 7 years ago. Let's go Glasgow!! Even if we are rubbishe this season 😆

[Diamonds85]

Ice hockey... Now there's a proper sport. Completely taken over my life from speedway 6 or 7 years ago. Let's go Glasgow!! Even if we are rubbishe this season 😆

[Lefty]

Many years ago, quite a few Wolves fans would follow  'Telford Tigers' Ice Hockey team in the winter months. A trip to 'Altrincham Aces' was always on the agenda. The sport had many Speedway parallels then... a limit on "Canadian Heat Leaders" and some dodgy patriality claims! Geat times. Plus the M6 had much less traffic on it in the winter... but then 'orange road cones' were invented!

[Daniel Smith]

Preaching to the converted?

Read it a few times now and it reads like a Ai bot story.

 

[Preston Comet]

The 1st thing I thought when reading the Aces were sponsoring the game was also, why didn't they do this before the start of next season?

[Daniel Smith]

6 hours ago, Preston Comet said:

The 1st thing I thought when reading the Aces were sponsoring the game was also, why didn't they do this before the start of next season?

Because those that run this sport are thick as fack

[bluejam]

13 hours ago, Lefty said:

Many years ago, quite a few Wolves fans would follow  'Telford Tigers' Ice Hockey team in the winter months. A trip to 'Altrincham Aces' was always on the agenda. The sport had many Speedway parallels then... a limit on "Canadian Heat Leaders" and some dodgy patriality claims! Geat times. Plus the M6 had much less traffic on it in the winter... but then 'orange road cones' were invented!

I went Telford Tigers last Saturday evening for the first time ever(didn't see any Wolves followers though)and it was good and I'll go again for sure.

[PhilTheAce]

Tbf we did sponsor them beginning of season to. This was 2nd time. But first time at the MeN arena

[BarracudaAce]

49 minutes ago, PhilTheAce said:

Tbf we did sponsor them beginning of season to. This was 2nd time. But first time at the MeN arena

I wasn't aware of that first sponsorship, Phil. 

I'm very much a Storm returnee - was a Season Ticket holder back in the mid 90s/early 2000s in their first stint in the then-called Nynex Arena - but simply hated the viewing at Altrincham. I lasted about 6 matches before sadly deciding it wasn't for me.

Have been seeing the Storm, though, by attending their visits to Sheffield Steelers each season.

[Diamonds85]

23 hours ago, BarracudaAce said:

I wasn't aware of that first sponsorship, Phil. 

I'm very much a Storm returnee - was a Season Ticket holder back in the mid 90s/early 2000s in their first stint in the then-called Nynex Arena - but simply hated the viewing at Altrincham. I lasted about 6 matches before sadly deciding it wasn't for me.

Have been seeing the Storm, though, by attending their visits to Sheffield Steelers each season.

The view at Altrincham was awful. Not a Storm fan but I'm so glad they're out of that dump. The black mould growing all over the place was enough to put me off 🤢

[bradders85]

Negatives first out of the way, personally I have no time for the new Storm in any shape or fashion and begrudgingly this is a good thing for Belle Vue as they are spreading themselves out through the city, which can only be a good thing. Speedway and Ice Hockey looking back through the years as always be intwined going to back to like the 1950 and maybe earlier when it saw the Speedway Star and Ice Hockey News merged. I've known a lot of people that have followed both sports over the years, with lots of NHL and even local Ice Hockey teams jerseys appearing on the terraces around Belle Vue, be it now or even back at the old Belle Vue Greyhound stadium. But even on visits in the past to Sheffield when they were in the Premier League you saw orange Steelers jerseys and i believe Swindon back in the day had a deal or some partnership with the Wildcats hockey and Wolves had one with Telford Tigers.


Manchester for me I feel is one of those cities that is both blessed and cursed with so many different sports that teams want to me seen and entice people to watch them over another sport, and I think it's why Manchester (as i can only base it on living here) sports team tend not to work with other as they want people spending their money with THEM and not with someone else. That all said, if it helps the club gain new fans then great. Personally, I've always wondered why they haven't done anything with the Basketball and Netball teams literally on the same site as the Speedway. As last year or the year prior, I did a bank holiday meeting at the speedway at dinnertime and then later on in the evening went back to Belle Vue for the Basketball.