Origin The team was first formed from the ruins of the
Ellesmere Port team,
St Saviour's, in 1984. The team was initially named after their sponsors, Motocraft Centre Ellesmere Port. However, after the loss of their sponsor, they renamed themselves the Ellesmere Port Jets. The Jets were admitted to
NBL Division 2 in 1986 and finished last in their first season, with just a single victory. Edging up to seventh in 1987–88, they then changed their name to Cheshire Jets, though still continuing to play in
Ellesmere Port. They continued a steady mid-table development until, in 1991, they won the divisional title despite suffering five defeats. The same year, the Jets moved up into the
BBL joining in with Britain's elite basketball teams. Later however, the arena in Ellesmere Port became unsuitable, and so in 1993 the Jets were forced to move to
Chester, and into the
Northgate Arena. The move was reflected in another name change to the Chester Jets. The real turning point for the Jets came in 1996, when the application of the
Bosman ruling to basketball resulted in the departure of many of the top English players to European clubs, and the
BBL changed its eligibility rule to entitle teams to use five non-national players. Trans-Atlantic recruitment by coach and co-owner Mike Burton resulted in a team which finished fifth in the League table in 1997. Subsequent seasons have seen their best-ever performances in 2002 (Northern Conference Champions) and 2003 (3rd in the re-unified League), and a string of successes in the BBL trophy (4-times winners, from 2001 to 2004), culminating in the League Championship in 2005. On 7 April 2007, prior to the Jets' season finale at home to
Guildford Heat, an 81–102 defeat, club owner and head coach Mike Burton announced that he would be retiring from the franchise at the end of the
2006–07 season. Burton's announcement, after 19 years at the helm, raised serious doubts of the clubs' future, with mounting debts and lack of financial backing. Shortly after the announcement, fans formed a committee to help save the club and received the backing of players including former Jet
James Hamilton. Following a sponsorship deal agreed during the summer of 2007 with local firm
BiG Storage to save the club and preserve their future, the Jets was renamed as the
BiG Storage Cheshire Jets to cover the wider demographic of
Cheshire county in line with BiG Storage's market coverage. When BiG Storage terminated the sponsorship, the managing director of the company arranged a successor sponsor;
Cheshire West and Chester Council. The club was plunged into chaos in November 2012 when, after only 7 games into the season, the British Basketball League withdrew the club's franchise from owner Haydn Cook after he notified them that he was going to cancel the players contracts and cancelled all future fixtures. The club had until the end of November to find £50,000 to preserve its status in top-flight basketball. Local businesses were found to donate money and become sponsors, thus saving the club and fulfilling its fixture list as planned. On 28 January 2024, the Phoenix won their sixth BBL Trophy following an upset win over the favoured
London Lions in the final. ==Home arenas==