OHL approves Steelheads move from Mississauga to Brampton for 2024

The Steelheads are moving north from Mississauga to Brampton for their upcoming season.

The Ontario Hockey League’s board of governors has approved the relocation of the Mississauga Steelheads to neighbouring Brampton.

The league said in a release that the team would retain the “Steelheads” name and will play out of the CAA Centre starting in the 2024-25 season.

The Steelheads announced in January that the team was in the process of moving to Brampton, bringing an end to more than two decades of Ontario Hockey League action in Mississauga.

Steelheads owners said the move is “aimed at enhancing our team’s growth and expanding our fan base,” adding that they “are confident that this change will contribute to the continued growth and success of the hockey club.”

Mississauga’s Paramount Fine Foods Centre is roughly seven kilometres away from the team’s new Brampton home at the CAA Centre.

Insauga.com has previously reported one reason for the move could be a rent hike from the City of Mississauga. The city and the Steelheads have been discussing an extended lease, but in the end Brampton came up with a deal the team couldn’t turn down, according to sources.

Brampton was left without an OHL when the Battalion departed for North Bay in 2013, and the Steelheads’ move could be a draw for hockey fans in both cities.

The Battalion struggled to draw and averaged an OHL-low 2,191 fans per game in its last season in Southern Ontario.

Mississauga, the third-largest city in Ontario by population, will be without an OHL team for the first time since 1998.

– With files from Insauga.com