Silver Blades have confirmed they are the new owners of Blackburn Arena.

The purchase increases their portfolio to six rinks in England – Gillingham, Cannock, Altrincham, Widnes, Solihull and Blackburn.

A spokesperson for Silver Blades said: “We are delighted at the acquisition of Blackburn and feel it is a perfect fit to extend our portfolio further into the North West. We are not looking to make any changes initially and can assure customers that it will be business as usual.

“There’s been a lot of changes in our industry over the last few years and it’s important that we respect the existing customers’ needs, but equally engage a new and potentially emerging audience to take up skating.”

“At Silver Blades we exercise new ideas and try to invoke change. We know the leisure audience is more demanding than ever now and because of that we try and produce as much opportunity for the community to engage with as possible.”

The Peel Group owned and successfully operated the Blackburn venue for the past 25 years. The Arena is home to the NIHL North Moralee D1 league and play-off champions the Blackburn Hawks.

Sources close to the club dismissed online rumours that the deal could impact the Hawks, saying that moves to either the Elite League or EPL weren’t on the cards.

Speculation that another Silver Blades based team – Manchester Storm – could be parachuted into Blackburn were also denied by their GM Neil Russell, who said “it was 99.99% certain they would remain in Altrincham for the foreseeable future”.