Ice hockey in Australia
[1] However, the establishment of the semi-professional Australian Ice Hockey League (AIHL) in 2000 (in place of the collapsed former state-based national competition)[2] has seen an increase in popularity for the sport,[3] a trend which continued in 2012 with the successful expansion of the league into Western Australia with the inclusion of Perth-based side Perth Thunder and the introduction of a two-conference competition.This important location for Australian ice sports began as a Cyclorama, which opened on 28 November 1890, at 89 Hindley Street, Adelaide.[11] On the evening of 12 October 1904, a match for what was called "hockey on the ice" was held during the carnival at the Adelaide Glaciarium.This game was held in the Melbourne Glaciarium, the Australian team were dressed in all white and the team from USS Baltimore wore white shirts with a large upper case black B on the front and center of the chest and grey trousers.[15] In 1909 state teams from Victoria and New South Wales first contested the Goodall Cup, which has since served continuously as the trophy awarded to the winners of the annual national competition (with hiatuses for the two World Wars, the closure of the Sydney Glaciarium in the late 1950s and for a single year in 1993),[8] thus making the Goodall Cup the third-oldest still awarded ice hockey trophy in the world,[16] and the oldest outside of Canada.[7] Australia's performance in international competition has been ordinary, qualifying for the Winter Olympic Games only once in 1960.