Sunshine Hockey League

The Sunshine Hockey League (SuHL) was a single A professional ice hockey league based in Florida, United States. The league existed from 1992 to 1995.
==History==
The 1992-93 season was SuHL's inaugural season. It was initially expected that four teams take part in the league's first season (the Daytona Beach Sun Devils, the Jacksonville Bullets, the Lakeland Ice Warriors and the West Palm Beach Blaze. A fifth team, the St. Petersburg Renegades, joined the league after the season was already under way. The first champion of the league was West Palm Beach, who defeated Jacksonville in the finals to win the Sunshine Cup.
1993-94 saw the number of participating teams drop back to four, with St. Petersburg folding. The main reason for this was the direct competition with the National Hockey League's Tampa Bay Lightning, located near St. Petersburg. The Lightning offered a higher level of play than the Renegades and eventually won the battle for fan support; a mere 889 people were showing up on average for Renegades home games.
A fifth team joined the league for the 1994-95 season, with the Fresno Falcons joining the league. The Californian team left the dying Pacific Southwest Hockey League and joined the league as a partial schedule opponent; they played 16 games in the league (i.e. four time against each team), whereas the other teams played about 50 games in the season.
In 1995, the league expanded outside of the Sunshine State and was renamed Southern Hockey League.
==Teams==
Team 	Location 	Arena 	Tenure 	Notes
Daytona Beach Sun Devils 	Daytona Beach, Florida 	Ocean Center 	1992-1995	join Southern Hockey League (1995-1996)
Jacksonville Bullets 	Jacksonville, Florida 	Jacksonville Coliseum 	1992-1995	city gets East Coast Hockey League team; Jacksonville Lizard Kings
Lakeland Ice Warriors 	Lakeland, Florida 	Lakeland Center 	1992-1995	join Southern Hockey League (1995-1996) as Lakeland Prowlers
St. Petersburg Renegades 	St. Petersburg, Florida 	Bayfront Arena 	1992-1993	folded after 20 games
West Palm Beach Blaze 	West Palm Beach, Florida	West Palm Beach Auditorium	1992-1995	join Southern Hockey League (1995-1996) as West Palm Beach Barracudas
Fresno Falcons (1970 - 1995)	Fresno, California 	Selland Arena 	1994-1995	
join West Coast Hockey League as Fresno Falcons
==Sunshine Cup championships==
* 1993:West Palm Beach Blaze (Jacksonville Bullets)
* 1994:West Palm Beach Blaze ()
* 1995:West Palm Beach Blaze ()
==List of seasons==
*1992-93 SuHL season
*1993-94 SuHL season
*1994-95 SuHL season
==See also==
* Southern Hockey League (1995-1996)
Category:Ice hockey leagues
Category:Ice hockey in the United States
Category:Established in 1992
Category:Disestablished in 1995
Category:Defunct ice hockey leagues