The Huntsville Havoc will play Birmingham on Friday at the Von Braun Center after its original opponent, Vermillion County, ceased operations Thursday.

Vermillion County was headquartered in Danville, Ill. It lasted less than two seasons, with significant team and arena issues from the start. Lack of ice and a Zamboni for players to practice in its first training camp, along with its first official game being postponed, was ominous for players, fans and league officials.

Thursday morning, the plug was pulled. Vermillion County won just nine games out of 86 it played, and had a spinning turnstile of coaches, staff and players. It failed to take the ice Feb. 4 against visiting Quad Cities, which earned a forfeit victory. Vermillion County officials failed to inform fans about the situation and many showed up for the game. Quad Cities players warmed up and took the ice for the official start, and then visited on the ice signing autographs, taking photos and skating with its fans who traveled along with Vermillion County fans.

Vermillion County was to have traveled to Huntsville for a Friday matchup and then visited Birmingham on Saturday. Huntsville now will host Birmingham on Friday, and Birmingham will host Macon on Saturday.

“There have been some contingencies in place because we were waiting on information and anything official just like everyone else,” Havoc president Justin Strickland told Huntsville Business Journal. “We’ve kinda known about and heard about what was going on, but we had to wait until anything was official. I can’t speak to knowing about what was going on with (Vermillion County) but know they had some issues with their building and ice.”

The hockey podcast “10 Minute Misconduct” held a special airing featuring former Vermillion County and Huntsville player Dante Juris. He outlined multiple problems including lodging for players, the arena and staff, communications with players and more. Players couldn’t skate because the host arena didn’t have ice or a Zamboni, which reportedly was “tied up in (border) Customs.”

“Essentially, we didn’t have training camp our first year … we were told to go to the gym,” he said. “Two days into going to the gym we were told not to go to the gym because we didn’t have insurance if someone gets hurt. The night before our first scheduled home game that we found out via group chat we weren’t playing. We were watching days tick by for the first game and no one told us until someone asked in group chat.”

Vermillion County made its Thursday announcement via social media.

“Regretfully, the Bobcats have ceased operations,” said Ellen Tully, owner of the Vermillion County Bobcats. “It is a sad day for hockey fans in Danville, but I want to personally thank them for their loyalty to the Bobcats over the past two seasons.”

Strickland said the SPHL has been working on schedules for the final weeks of the regular season. Post-season berths and seeds could be determined by win-loss percentages instead of points, should that be necessary for any tie-breakers or other scenarios. He said league officials still are working through all those issues.

“They’re trying to make sure everything will be square,” he said. “It’s going to be tough, I think, for the commissioner to string all that together. If some teams play more road games or however all that works out, we may do the standings by percentages instead of points. But we’re not certain yet. The commissioner is still working hard to get all that figured out. He’s working to try to protect home games that might be affected.”

Faceoff against Birmingham on Friday is 7 p.m.