"We don't want to end up like Speedway," said Steve Nell, managing director of the Swindon Wildcats, when talking about the closure of the Link Centre.

The West Swindon Leisure Centre is the home venue for the national hockey team but after flooding caused extensive damage, it's operator GLL Better announced it has been closed for the "foreseeable future". 

This has caused an immense impact on the local sporting institutions who have had to rearrange their home matches to take place elsewhere and are facing a significant hit to their gate receipts, on which they rely.

Their game against MK Lightning on September 30 was supposed to be a home match, but this is now happening at Milton Keynes thanks to the efforts of the ice hockey community, and local businesses and sponsors - one of which is providing a coach to get home fans there.

Others have provided office space, or generators to supply some light to the powerless building, ice rinks in Bristol and Cardiff have opened themselves up for the team to train on, and the general outpouring of support from locals has been vast. 

But this community support is something that Steve Nell has said is desperately needed, stating the club might not make it through this period of uncertainty without it.

"We're in limbo at the moment, waiting for an update which will come next week," he said.

"Once we've found out the actual length of the closure we can look at what the future holds properly."

Mr Nell added that the club was doing all it could to minimise disruption from fans, and urged them to continue to support the Wildcats where they could. 

"Ticket sales are our biggest revenue stream, so it's crucial to keep us going. It will be tough and we're going to need everyone's support, the fans, the sponsors, GLL, we need everyone to buy into it and I'm sure they will. 

"I'm trying to be positive about it as I don't want the town to lose another sporting team like what has happened with Speedway."

On top of the adult team, there are 150+ junior players, figure skaters and members of the public all going without their local ice rink. 

One junior player, Elli Shaw, told the BBC: "It's pretty disappointing. We were so ready to start the season off. I train four times a week so going from four to none is a pretty big change, it's a pretty big blow."

A meeting was held between Swindon Borough Council and GLL Better last Wednesday, and now an update on what exactly 'foreseeable future' means is expected next week.