OMAHA, Neb. (AP) – Professional hockey is returning to Nebraska for the first time since 1975.

A farm team for the NHL’s Calgary Flames will be based in Omaha and play at the Omaha Civic Auditorium beginning this fall, team officials announced Monday.

“We’re thrilled to be in Omaha,” said Flames President and CEO Ken King. “We love this building and the people.”

The Knights of Aksarben, a group of Omaha business and civic leaders, joined with the Flames to finance the new American Hockey League team. Each will be equal partners in ownership of the team. Neither side would disclose the financial terms of the deal. The Flames will oversee the hockey operations, and the Knights of Aksarben will help finance the team. The new franchise has a five-year contract to play in Omaha.

The team currently has no name, but King said he hopes the team’s moniker will be the Knights, which was the name of the last minor league hockey team to play in Omaha. That team played its last game in 1975 after having been in Omaha off and on since 1939. Hockey legend Gordie Howe played for the Knights in the 1940s, and Scotty Bowman began his coaching career with a brief stop in Omaha in the 1960s.

King said the team is working on securing the rights to the Knights name, which are currently owned by another party that he would not name.

“I would lie to you if I would say that is not our first choice by far,” King said.

He said an announcement about the team’s name should come within a few weeks.

The new AHL team joins the University of Nebraska at Omaha and the Omaha Lancers in competition for hockey spectators, but Flames General Manager and Coach Darryl Sutter said he felt that would not keep the new team from drawing strong crowds.

He used the situation in Calgary, where a junior hockey team plays in the same building as the Flames, as an example. Sutter said the teams’ coexistence has not kept both from drawing good crowds.

“It’s about the product,” Sutter said.

AP-ES-03-28-05 1909EST