Sheffield Steelers happy with the EIHL fixture list format for 2023-24

Matt Petgrave celebrates, picture by Dean Woolley

Sheffield Steelers fans are going to have to wait almost a fortnight longer than last season to watch their heroes in competitive action.

The club's first outing at Sheffield Arena in the forthcoming Elite League season will be on Saturday, September 23.

It is a league encounter and the opponents have yet to be disclosed.

The travelling side won't be Nottingham Panthers who visit in an exhibition friendly on September 9, or Cardiff Devils, who are also in 'friendly' action in South Yorkshire on the 19th, though.

Or Belfast Giants who are in Sheffield for a double-header a little further down the fixture list.

Last season, Sheffield opened their programme on September 10, a disappointing league home loss to Cardiff Devils watched by 6,645 fans.

Steelers started their Challenge Cup campaign on September 17, a 5-2 win over Manchester Storm, a lively match in which Matt Petgrave scored twice and Brett Neumann and Daniel Ciampini bagged three assists each.

The EIHL club describes the 2023-24 fixture list as "excellent" - which indicates they have landed the Boxing Day home game visit by Nottingham and have avoided some of the pitfalls of back-to-back away games at rinks many miles apart.

And there is further good news that they start the League and Cup schedule with just one home midweek game, a Wednesday, although cup games may be added if they progress.

The Cup will be of renewed importance after the way Steelers collapsed over two legs in last year's semi finals, Fife Flyers moving through to their first-ever appearance in the Final.

Steelers will have a weekend in Belfast after Christmas as Steelers attempt to halt the onward momentum of last season's Grand Slam champions.

Last Friday, Belfast announced that forward Ciaran Long would be back with Giants for a fourth straight season.

Sheffield Operations Director Shaun Smith said: “We have worked hard with the Arena to facilitate what we believe is an excellent league and cup schedule for the team.

“At the recent fixtures meeting we managed to secure pretty much every available date which means a weekend dominant schedule, something our fans tell us they prefer.”

The league will issue the full schedule in early July.