As Kootenay hits the road for some key dates with the Wheat Kings Wednesday night and Saskatoon and PA this weekend, the attendance interview Rockets voice Regan Bartel did last week has morphed into relocation talk.
And Kootenay's right in the mix of it.
Cleeve Dheensaw of the Victoria Times-Colonist, who seems to do a WHL-back-to-Victoria piece every six months or so, has a story here about the rampant rumour mill turning in the capital about an imminent announcement this spring about the relocation or expansion of the league to Victoria in time of the 2012-13 season.
Couple of things here; Not to nitpick because Dheensaw's a vet who's covered the Island sports scene for a long time but he really throws a lot of teams against the relocation wall to see what will stick.
Kootenay and PG are among his first thrown out but for the Ice, GM Jeff Chynoweth threw cold water on that with "We're not moving anywhere."
Saskatoon - with an average of 4400 (albeit in a city of over 200,000) - is on the list but isn't going anywhere; Portland? Not now with their ownership. Yes they need a new building but relocation isn't happening; Chilliwack - with the battle their in for fans in the Fraser Valley with the AHL's Abbotsford Heat - is a possibility but I think it's almost as remote as the aforementioned.
The key ingredient in all of this could be Winnipeg and if the NHL goes back. The Moose then will be looking at Victoria for their AHL home and make Abby a more viable AHL market. At the same time it'll hurt Chilliwack but then Victoria won't be an option.
One has to think that if Winnipeg gets an NHL team back, two viable WHL potentials will be gone with one swoop.
Still, the fact that Kootenay's on every relocation list out there, as it was when the club came here in 98, has to make one think. Though I will add that the date - a supposed announcement for the 2012-13 season - is also a non-starter. If there's an announcement of a team moving it'll be done in June after the Memorial Cup. No team would announce that they're moving a year in advance, it would be murder on the pocketbook in terms of fans supporting a franchise that's gone in a year.
6 comments:
I think Jeff is the spoiled one. Or is it greedy. He fails to mention that one of the best attended games this year was when he cracked his wallet open and let the churches have reduced prices on seats when Nathen gave his testimony after the game. Last weekend there was a tournament in town. My wife and I ran into 100 kids and at least 20 chaperones in a restaurant. We asked if they were going to the hockey game. They hadn't heard about it. These are one off things that he could do to up the attendance. At least he would be getting something for the seats that aren't otherwise sold and with his attitude a little bit of PR wouldn't hurt. Whoever is marketing the team must be a close friend of Jeffy's or is afraid of him because he does nothing to promote the team. Daddy should have cut the apron strings a long time ago.
People also shouldn't forget that we have just (I think) came out of a recession. I'd be surprised if there is a business out there that hasn't felt the effects of the recession.
sounds like everybody has excuses !!!!
Eakin on line with Pearce and Ismond, that's an invitation to get Eakin beat up. OMG.
Starting to look more and more like this may be the final year for WHL in Kootenay as it sounds like Victoria is getting a relocated team next year. Come on people of Cranbrook, this is a good thing that we can't lose!
rumors are flying in Chilliwack, the word being they are off to Victoria, the Cougars are off to Nanaimo and The Kootenay Ice will be in Chilliwack for next season.
At least the Ice Management won't be doing stupid things to upset the Season ticket base like the Bruins management has this lpast year...Moose to Victoria is interesting also so things could change I guess we'll all see in June
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