26-673: The Adelaide Avalanche was a semi-professional ice hockey club based in the Adelaide suburb of Thebarton, South Australia . The Avalanche, founded in 1999, was a founding member of the Australian Ice Hockey League (AIHL). The team's home venue was the Snowdome Adelaide (now known as IceArenA). The Avalanche competed in the AIHL for eight years, from its inaugural season in 2000 until 17 June 2008, when
52-433: A full-time professional athlete . As a result, semi-professional players frequently have (or seek) full-time employment elsewhere. A semi-pro player or team could also be one that represents a place of employment that only the employees are allowed to play on. In this case, it is considered semi-pro because their employer pays them, but for their regular job, not for playing on the company's team. The semi-professional status
78-608: Is not universal throughout the world and depends on each country's labour code and each sports organization's specific regulations. The San Francisco Olympic Club fielded an American football team in 1890. That year, the Olympic Club was accused by a rival club of enticing athletes to jump to its ranks with offers of jobs. An investigation by the Amateur Athletic Union ruled that the Olympics' practice
104-447: Is prohibitive, semi-pro football is common at the adult levels, in the outdoor or indoor variety , providing an outlet for players who have used up their NCAA eligibility and have no further use for maintaining amateur status. As a sport that normally plays only one game per week, American football is especially suited for semi-pro play and commonly known as "working man's" football; meaning the players have regular jobs and play football on
130-780: The NSW administered ECSL's last season. The Avalanche's first ever competitive game was on the road in Sydney against the Canterbury Eagles . Adelaide defeated the Eagles 7-5 to register the club's inaugural victory. Steve's son Greg Oddy led the South Australian outfit's opening performance, registering two goals. Oddy and Thilthorpe personally arranged and paid for the travel of east coast teams to Adelaide in 1999. On 15 May 1999, Adelaide hosted its first competitive home game at
156-789: The National Hockey League (NHL). References: A list of players that have played at least one game for the Avalanche and who have also played at least one game for an international team at the World Championships organised by the IIHF . References: Avalanche all-time, season and game player records. All-time Season Single game The Avalanche had three captains in the team's known history. The captain in 1999 and between 2002-03 are currently unknown. References: The Avalanche had four head coaches in
182-596: The Scottish Premiership , with most teams below the second-level Scottish Championship being semi-professional. Historically, English rugby league and rugby union have had one full-time professional division, with semi-professional divisions at the next level down. The second tier of union, the RFU Championship , became fully professional beginning with the 2009–10 season. Adelaide A%27s Too Many Requests If you report this error to
208-667: The Snowdome in Thebarton . Along with the Sydney Bears and Canberra Knights , the Avalanche were one of the founding members of the AIHL in 2000. They finished first out of the three teams that year and claimed the inaugural AIHL championship. In 2001, the club enjoyed the same success in winning their second consecutive title. In 2002, the Melbourne Ice , Western Sydney Ice Dogs , and Newcastle North Stars joined
234-604: The AIHL, expanding it to six teams. The Goodall Cup , Australia's top prize in ice hockey, also became part of the AIHL that year. Adelaide again finished second in the overall standings and lost to the Bears in the Goodall Cup final. The Avalanche finished the 2003 season with their fourth straight minor premiership but lost to the Ice Dogs in the first round of a newly introduced four-team playoff system. They would lose in
260-468: The Adelaide Avalanche were featured on episode 11 of Network Ten 's Cyber Shack TV on 10 October 2006. Both David Huxley and Brad Wanchulak played and reviewed the new NHL 2K6 on Xbox 360 . The Avalanche came into financial difficulties in 2008, and after being able to host several game at the start of the season, could not meet its road commitments, forcing the team to withdraw from
286-578: The North Stars in that game. The Avalanche have retooled for 2006 in the quest for their first-ever Goodall Cup, with their current roster boasting Mighty Roos players Greg Oddy and brothers Ben & Luke Thilthorpe. They finished second after the regular season and hosted the finals series, beating the Ice Dogs 5–2 to reach the final but losing the final 0-4 to the North Stars . Members of
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#1732783158130312-464: The United States, where college ice hockey dominates at that age group; the junior leagues in the United States generally operate as fully amateur teams to maintain the players' eligibility to play in college. Lower-end minor leagues and more obscure sports often operate at a semi-professional level due to cost concerns. Because the cost of running a fully professional American football team
338-678: The attendant scholarships , in maintaining amateur status (unlike the Amateur Athletic Union, the NCAA forbade any sort of compensation outside of scholarships, including job offers tied to their playing, until 2020). Eligibility for participation in the Olympics in some sports is still dependent upon maintaining a purely amateur status (although far less so than was previously the case), and such athletes may be supported by government money, business sponsorships, and other systems. At
364-624: The club was replaced with the Snowdome's own team, Adelaide A's (later rebranded Adelaide Adrenaline), after its AIHL licence was revoked due to financial issues. During the club's lifetime, the Avalanche won four AIHL premierships and two AIHL championships. The Adelaide Avalanche was founded in May 1999 by the Oddy and Thilthorpe families to secure national ice hockey competition for South Australia and their sons. Steve Oddy and James Thilthorpe headed
390-410: The fledgling club as owners and directors, Steve Oddy taking on the role of club chairman. The Avalanche appointed John Botterill as inaugural head coach. He would be assisted by Neil Boyle. Australian international defenceman, Pavel Bohacik, was appointed the club's maiden captain. Adelaide quickly joined the de facto national league, East Coast Super League (ECSL) in 1999, in what would prove to be
416-590: The normal duties of the company's employees, though highly competitive teams often evolved into "sponsored" squads which trained for sports full-time and only nominally worked in the factory. The National Industrial Basketball League evolved out of these company-branded basketball teams. By the 1940s, baseball split off into separate truly amateur softball teams, sometimes sponsored by employers, and an expanded system of fully professionalized minor leagues whose lower ranks included many former industrial players. There are many benefits, such as collegiate eligibility and
442-506: The remainder of the season on 17 June. The team's players were transferred to the newly formed Adelaide A's , who in a deal with the AIHL was allowed to play the remainder of the Avalanche's season. In 2022 the name of the Adelaide Avalanche was revived by a new team competing in the Pacific Hockey League . Notes: Notes References: Each season, between 1999 and 2007, the Avalanche held an annual awards night where
468-407: The same time, professional sports have become such a massive and remunerative business that even many low-level feeder teams can afford to have fully professional athletes. In Canada, semi-professionalism is prevalent in junior ice hockey , in which the top level players (most of whom are teenagers still in, or just out of, high school) are paid at a semi-professional level. This is not the case in
494-519: The semifinals again in 2004 to the North Stars in double overtime. As two more teams—the Brisbane Blue Tongues and Central Coast Rhinos —entered the league in 2005, the Avalanche returned to dominance by finishing first overall in the regular season standings. The "curse of the minor premiers" again haunted the team. Despite winning through to the Goodall Cup final for the first time in three years, they were defeated 3–1 by
520-594: The short summer seasons and low salaries require players to hold jobs in the offseason to make ends meet. There are several hundred semi-professional football teams at non-League level. The bottom division of the English Football League (the fourth tier of the English football league system ) has traditionally been the cut-off point between professional ("full-time") and semi-professional ("part-time") in English football . However, many teams in
546-435: The team awarded a number of player awards. Team roster for the 2008 AIHL season Defencemen Coaches Legend (C) Captain (A) Alternate Captain (I) Import player Statistics Average age: 22.1 Average height: 179.9 cm Average weight: 82.4 kg Win%: 33% A list of players that have played at least one game for the Avalanche and who have also played at least one game in
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#1732783158130572-428: The team's history. References: The Avalanche had two general manager groups (GMs) in the team's history. References: Semi-professional Semi-professional sports are sports in which athletes are not participating on a full-time basis, but still receive some payment. Semi-professionals are not amateur because they receive regular payment from their team, but generally at a considerably lower rate than
598-422: The top levels, as finances depend on promotion and relegation both of parent male teams and of the female teams themselves. Full professionalism for women is still in the planning stages; top female players often depend on other sources of income (such as coaching and physical training), and many attend university or college while playing. In Scottish football , semi-professional teams compete at all levels below
624-538: The top non-League competition, the National League , have become "full-time" professional clubs in an effort to achieve League status. Many former League clubs also remain as fully professional teams following relegation to the lower leagues at least for as long as they retain a large enough average attendance to generate the income needed to pay the players. Women's football in England is semi-professional at
650-538: The weekends. In the 20th century the term "semi-pro football league" refer to higher level amateur leagues, though the players do not get paid, the leagues and the games are run in a somewhat professional manner. The National Lacrosse League , whose teams also typically play only one game per week, pays a salary that is enough to be considered fully professional, but players also are able to pursue outside employment to supplement their income. The lowest levels of organized baseball are also effectively semi-professional, as
676-675: Was not actually professionalism but only a "semi" form of it, inventing the term "semi-pro". Although the Amateur Athletic Union did not like the idea very much, it decided that clubs could indeed offer employment without losing their amateur status or compromising the athlete. In North America, semi-professional athletes and teams were far more common in the early and mid-20th century than they are today. Large blue-collar employers such as factories and shipyards often fielded baseball and basketball teams, with players receiving full-time salaries comparable to other employees. In theory, such players split their work week between athletic training and
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