Timmins is the largest city in Ontario (population 43,000) without a junior hockey team.
Like some smaller towns around the North Kirkland Lake, New Liskeard, Kapuskasing the highest calibre of hockey in Timmins for the last 10 years has been midget hockey.
When the NOJHL’s Timmins Golden Bears folded under a pile of unpaid bills in 1999, the nearby town of Iroquois Falls (population 4,879) rolled out the red carpet and welcomed the junior ‘A’ franchise with open arms. In order to keep the team, the town of Iroquois Falls provides the junior club a subsidized rate for ice time $75 per hour for all games and practices while providing the team exclusive rights to all arena advertising revenues.
A small town making concessions to host a junior ‘A’ team is not uncommon in the North the Blind River Beavers are reportedly provided free ice.
Such is not the case in North Bay. And the way things have unfolded with the OUA’s Nipissing Lakers taking the ice and the junior ‘A’ Trappers attaching themselves to a three-way lease at Memorial Gardens, North Bay could be on its way to becoming the largest city in Ontario without junior hockey. It’s not hard to fathom North Bay soon joining the Kirkland Lakes, Kapuskasings and New Liskeards of the hockey world, towns where young players have no choice but to leave home at 16 to play junior hockey.
The biggest hurdle?
The prohibitive cost of doing business with the City and operating a team at Memorial Gardens under a lease agreement designed to extract close to $100,000 from the junior ‘A’ team’s operating budget.
Quite simply, this year’s North Bay Trappers, adjusting to a decline in fan support and paid attendance, are hovering near the break-even point.
If the Blind River Beavers host games for free and the Abitibi Eskimos pay $225 for three hours of ice, what do the Trappers pay for Memorial Gardens? According to the new three-year lease agreement, both the Trappers and Nipissing Lakers pay the city $1,000 per home game. This rate will increase by 3% each of the next two years, meaning teams will pay $1,030/game next season and $1,060.90/game in 2011-12 (the lease was signed before the province’s HST legislation, so perhaps a further 8% gouge is coming).
That $1,000/game rate for the 2009-10 Trappers is up significantly from the $400/game the 2008-09 Skyhawks paid, up from $372/game in 2007-08, $360/game in 2006-07 and $350/ game in 2005-06.
Why such a steep per-game increase? The city sought “full-cost recovery” in negotiations with Nipissing University as the Gardens’ main tenant the city wants to recover costs associated with providing extra staff for security, timekeeping and box office and the Trappers basically signed on for the same terms. But while Nipissing pays $1,000 per game for 14 games, the same rate applies to the Trappers 35-40 home games (pre-season and playoffs included).
That’s between $35,000 and $40,000 paid to the city. The city also bills the Trappers (and Lakers) for 100 hours of practice ice time (at the non-prime rate), 5% of the total value of each season ticket (an estimated 500 season-ticket subscribers), 5% of all single ticket sales and 15% of all gross advertising revenue up to $100,000.
The teams also pay a Capital Reserve Fund fee of $5 per season ticket and 35 cents per single ticket. A typical junior team also has to absorb transportation costs (an estimated $70,000 per season), room-and-board/accommodations (close to $60,000) and other costs associated with running a hockey team and billeting teen-aged players.
When the numbers are all crunched and the bills paid by the end of the season, Trappers vice-president Guy Blanchard expects the junior ‘A’ club to pay the city “about 20 to 25% more” than last season, somewhere “close to six digits.”
By comparison, Abitibi Eskimos president Scott Marshall said his club will pay the town of Iroquois Falls about $15,000 in total this season, which includes ice time for all games and practices, storage, a private dressing room and office space. Having become known as a healthy junior hockey town, Iroquois Falls has the second-highest average attendance in the NOJHL at 723 per game (compared to the Trappers’ 1,015 per game). But even the Eskimos have to work to meet rising operating costs.
“We would never survive here if we had to pay that,” Marshall said Friday upon learning of the Trappers’ $1,000 per game charge.
Not knowing what fan support would be like with the OUA Lakers taking the ice and a new advertising revenue-sharing protocol in place, the Trappers have had to adjust on the fly to meet the challenge.
Basically, Blanchard and general manager Ian Swalucynski have had to “do their homework” to acquire quality players such as Sacha Guimond, Brodie Barron, Jonathan Aubertin and Dan Zawacki at minimal cost, while staying away from high-priced talent they might have acquired in years past, when the Skyhawks also employed two front-office staff.
“We knew it was going to be very challenging,” Blanchard said Friday, noting that when the club first opted to co-exist with the Lakers, sales manager Gary Davison was a member of the Skyhawks staff (Davison later joined the Lakers’ staff). “We felt we’d be able to maintain a good marketing scheme and go in a new direction player-wise, with less high-end (high-priced) players and more room-and-board paid by the players which is where we’re at.”
Losing an experiences salesman like Davison and the fact attendance has dropped has made the challenge even greater, Blanchard said.
“At this present time, our success is going to be (determined) in the second half we’ll see where everything stands when we’re the only tenant in the building and we’re making a playoff run and how far we go in the playoffs,” he said.
With the Lakers playing five more home games before the regular season ends Feb. 12, Blanchard said what happens through March and April will determine how the junior ‘A’ Trappers operate next year. The Trappers recently introduced a fee for new players with every other NOJHL team except Abitibi having adopting a players’ fee of some sort and Blanchard said charging players a higher fee next year could be considered.
“Those are the challenges we’re up against,” Blanchard said. “I think we’ve met them so far. Now, we’ll see what happens in the second half with the people who enjoy junior hockey and want to come watch junior hockey. And hopefully, things work out and we make a good run in the playoffs.”
Dollars And Sense
When the Trappers played Abitibi on the road Nov. 21, the Eskimos moved the game to the McIntyre Arena in Timmins, attracting 1,262 fans to the venerable hockey arena. There is a thirst for junior hockey’s return to Timmins, but with the Eskimos holding territorial rights in nearby Iroquois Falls, it is not likely to happen. As the City of Timmins is learning, once a junior hockey team leaves town, it can prove difficult to get one back.
The Lakers/Trappers/city lease agreement specifies that all season tickets or single-game tickets are to be sold exclusively by the city through the Memorial Gardens box office. With a new university team in town, I wonder how many of those thousands of students on campus have the means to trek down to Chippewa Street to buy a ticket at the box office? I wonder how many more tickets would be sold in the city, whether it’s for the Lakers or Trappers, if tickets were made available for sale in other high-traffic outlets?
The junior Trappers aren’t the only team hindered by prohibitive costs at Memorial Gardens. In September, both midget Trappers’ president Scott Kile and head coach John Couch said they would prefer the team be able to play all their home games at Memorial Gardens, but the increased costs for usage of the arena is the determining factor. So instead of the midget Trappers hosting their Great North Midget League games on the only suitable surface in town, the 190-by-90-foot pad at Memorial Gardens, elite midget players come to town and have to play on the undersized 180-by-80 surface at West Ferris Arena.
An only-in-North Bay hockey story The North Bay Company League had some games moved from Pete Palangio Arena to Memorial Gardens this season. Even though the league has a 19-year-old who gets paid to be the timekeeper, the 19-year-old was unable to work the scoreclock at the Gardens because he is not a city employee. So there are two teams on the ice playing a men’s league game, with no score on the clock and the two referees keeping time with stopwatches. Reminded me of Downe Playground in New Sudbury on the outdoor rink in 1983.
Except it was North Bay in 2009.
great article, ken; sad situation here with all the money grabbing going on. the university starting up did nothing to help it either; i can’t help but wonder if they agreed to the expensive lease rate just to choke out the trappers…of course, halfway into their season and ticket sales have dropped almost 50%, so maybe they didn’t quite have their business case figured out. just out of curiousity…anybody on city council ever play hockey, or have a kid in the program, or even attended a game (and that would be the whole 60 minutes, not just to wave to the crowd and ‘be seen’ at a game)
The 1,000 fans the Trappers are now getting are the regular hard core fans that organization has always drawn,the missing 600 to 700 fans are the casual fans that only attend when they feel a guaranteed win is in the offing for their money,plus some of these casual fans have been drawn to the higher skill level of hockey,that the Lakers provide for the same money.The Laker attendance dropoff is also a result of the casual fan not wanting to spend his money unless a winning team will assure a win for his entertainment
Another way to look at is that North Bay has what Sault Ste. Marie and Sudbury don’t– a Canadian University hockey team.
Another way to look at it is that North Bay has what Sault Ste. Marie and Sudbury don’t — a Canadian University hockey team.
Deejay,
One member of council is an avid recreational player, he plays right wing in pick-up hockey at the Gardens twice a week. Not a bad scoring touch, he plays the old-school right winger type of game like Bobby Schmautz or Stan Johnathan.
Randy R,
yes indeed, North Bay has university hockey, it would be big if Laurentian reintroduced its team. The one concern, however, is that now that the snow has hit the ground and winter is here, there are only five more home games left. A university schedule alone would mean that Memorial Gardens would be relatively empty the other 350 days of the year, aside from the occasional Charley Pride or George Jones concert every couple of years. No junior hockey means less activity at the rink, less money coming in, less work for hourly-rate city staff working the games, but the city still has to operate the facility year-round, so the bill for taxpayers goes up. Hope people in the Sault enjoy that KISS concert Tuesday night.
This is just as much about City of North Bay procedures having a negative impact on the state of the city’s hockey landscape.
The midget Trappers, for instance, can rent the ice at West Ferris Arena for $140 an hour, set up a table at the front door with a volunteer to collect an entry fee and play the game, which is what the junior ‘A’ teams in Sudbury (Copper Cliff) and Sault (John Rhodes) do. The midget Trappers SHOULD be able to do the same at Memorial Gardens, rent the ice for $140, set up a table and play the game.
Instead, it is mandated that the team assume the cost of staff for the box office, arena security, timekeepers and maybe even the extra rink attendant . . . making it impossible to host games at Memorial Gardens. Why should a midget team SUBSIDIZE the city’s agreements with its unionized staff? If security guards and box office are so necessary, why aren’t they needed at West Ferris Arena for midget games? What other city or arena in the Great North Midget League has to overcome such hurdles with its municipality?
Ken – i commented on your article early in the year regarding the Lakers and now i commend you for this story – its factual – to the point and in full support of HOCKEY in this community – not just one team. Ive said all along that the Gardens (City) should have never sold the farm to the lakers giving them not only advertising but concessions as well – Is it right for a popcorn and a soda to be $4.00 on Laker night and $4.25 on Trapper night – I think not – The CITY – THE ARENA MANAGEMENT are the people to blame here no one else – - Still dont understand why the City with all of their trained staff in event planning marketing and specials event cannot sell advertising in their rinks and pass the savings along to their tennants. Why cant they run their own concessions – they did it for years and years before . Sadlly , the Trappers will be moving on unless some concessions by the city are on the way which they wont – Too bad – i enjoy Sunday Night Hockey – great way to wind down after a busy week
Have you asked about the “cost recovery” program that they have tried to jam down the throats of WFMH, and it’s kids and parents. I have been told that they refused to flood between periods of games unless the teams paid an addition $50 per flood of the ice surface. I am offended by “cost recovery”. It is “revenue generation” not “cost recovery”. It will be interesting to see where this hits the books. Assuming it impacts 10 floods a day (a conservative number – eliminates 6 floods a day, and 4 floods are paid for), that would result in a reduction in costs of $300, and increase in revenue of $200 for a total impact of $500 per day. Over a 30 week operating season (which is again a conservative number) and 4 surfaces, that will reduce costs by $252,000 and increase revenue by $168,000. I am willing to bet you do not see this $420,000 impact anywhere on the books unfortunately.
Interesting info, but this has an apples to oranges flavor to it. The Blind River arena seats about 1,000, while Iroquois Falls is about 1,500. Memorial Gardens’s capacity is 3,500. So overhead is lower in BR and IF, and maybe there are other considerations. For example, Memorial Gardens has to use unionized city staff to run things like the clock, were IF and BR can probably do it themselves or get volunteers.
Then there’s market. BR has a population of about 4,000, IF is about 5,000, while North Bay is more than 10 times that, 55,000 to 60,000. Excluding the Soo, and perhaps Sudbury (really Copper Cliff), we have the largest market in the NOJHL and the largest arena too.
I think the Thunderbirds play in the Rhodes centre, which I think seats under 1,000 and the Jr. Wolves play at McClelland which seats about 2,000.
Maybe the issue is the Gardens is too big an arena for the Trappers.
brain, the size of the arena isn’t really the issue here…we’ve either got an arena that holds almost 4000, or one that holds about 500. that choice was made 50 years ago and can’t be undone, so costing out items is unfair to the tenants since they will rarely if ever come close to using the available sitting room. timekeeper, zamboni wheelman, net drillers,how many security workers are paid? does that justify 1000 a game? and what if the trappers do move…is there another tenant to pay that, or will the bulding be empty? if the city really loses THAT much operating the gardens, why did they spend so much giving it another facelift 2 years ago?
The issue is facility cost, and larger buildings cost more in every way — heating, hydro, maintenance, staff. It’s an issue that sports teams at all levels face, can they afford the facility cost?
Should North Bay charge the same as BR or IF for an arena that is two, three or even four times the size? If the junior Trappers get below cost, should the midget Trappers get the same deal? What about Timbits?
I’m not saying that the city has not put the Trappers in a difficult position. I really can’t say for sure. What I am saying is that comparing their arena deal to BR or IF is dodgy and probably doesn’t stand up to scrutiny when scale of operation is considered.
As for the facelift, the city did that to keep the Gardens up to a certain standard, just high enough to maintain the business it has and to avoid demands for a new facility.
brainstrained,
Memorial Gardens is the only ice pad in North Bay that can adequately host any calibre of hockey above bantam.
However, because of the city’s “cost-recovery” policy in mandating that certain facility renters cover the extra cost of staffing timekeepers, security, rink attendants etc., then the rink becomes too cost-prohibitive to use. A midget ‘A’ team can book the ice at Memorial Gardens for $140/hour and host a game, but a midget ‘AAA’ team of players the same age cannot rent the ice at the same rate . . .
Comparing the arena deal to Iroquois Falls or Blind River or Sudbury or Sault Ste. Marie is not dodgy, because every one of those places has the same “deal.” Actually, there’s not much of a deal the team books the ice at whatever rate, team staff members set up a table at the entrance to collect admission, the team collects the money and everyone watches the game. If a town gives a certain team a special rate, good for that team.
That is not possible in North Bay, because the City has it in writing that they will collect $1,000 of the fans’ money from each game, plus 50 cents from each ticket sold, plus 35 cents from each ticket for a Capital Reserve fund etc. If the city collects $1,700 from the team from each home game, that MORE than offsets the cost of the ice and the $400 in wages paid to the city staff that night.
Not sure what you mean by scale of operation? One Zamboni guy, one extra rink rat and volunteer security can handle 700 fans in Iroquois Falls, but 12 paid staff are needed for 800 fans in North Bay? If North Bay’s seating capacity is three times the size of Blind River, then the North Bay Figure skating club should be expected to pay three times more for ice than the skating club in Blind River?
I appreciate that the Gardens is the only ice pad large enough, but it comes with 3,500 seats, more space to heat and light, more area to clean and maintain, and so on. Its not just an ice pad with bleachers, walls and a roof. That is scale of operation.
That and the fact that the Trappers play in one of the three largest markets in the league, and of those three the market with the least hockey competition, they shouldnt expect the same deal from local taxpayers that teams in BR and IF get.
In a lackluster attendance year, they are still drawing almost 300 more per home game than league-leading Abitibi. Thats a per game gate about $2,000 more than Abitibi, and probably a whole lot more than the NOJHL average.
Where do local taxpayers enter into the equation? It’s the City that collects $100,000 from hockey fans and the team’s sponsors. There are no tax dollars flowing to the North Bay Trappers. It’s the other way around and then some.
If there is no team, however, then taxpayers do enter the equation . . . because more of the taxpayers’ money will have to be devoted to operate an empty Memorial Gardens, without that extra $100,000 the city collects from hockey fans and sponsors.
While they shouldn’t expect the same deal that teams in BR and IF get, they also shouldn’t be expected to subsidize the city’s collective agreements with city staff that need not apply to the team’s operations.
ok, if you’re going to ‘cost recover’, then the costs you should be worried about are the variables…the 12 staff, and a few other odds and sods. the overhead lighting is about the only thing that falls into that category, because in the 3 hours of the game, the fixed costs won’t change. if the trappers are gone tomorrow, the ice won’t be removed on sunday nights; that cost will still be incurred, along with heating the arena, and maintaining the parking lot. going back to my earlier question ken, the reason i wondered about council’s hockey knowledge is because their ‘cost recovery’ strategy seems so absurd. they give away money to the capitol center every year…(i remember when that first started-it was going to be temporary….like income tax!) where’s the cost recovery there? at some point, as a city we have to accept that some things just don’t make money…and then we have to decide if we’re willing to fund them or let them die. now, i truly appreciate the artistic offering the capitol center gives the city; but there was never a referendum to ask if i would pay for it. so, if the political will is not there to just make the choice and ask us later about hockey, maybe they should put it to a vote…add the question to the next election ballot, then we won’t need to beat this poor dead horse. my only caveat to that is-if the trappers have died before the choice is made, under NO circumstances would i agree to ogive the lakers a break on the rent-they quickly agreed to the rent hike in the first place, so if they ‘win’ the local hockey market, they can keep paying the price.
Where do taxpayers fit into the equation? Any costs not covered by the Trappers are covered by the city, and hence the taxpayers. Any extra revenue provided by the Trappers may go to cover other Garden expenses that would have to be covered by the city, and hence the taxpayers. Nothing wrong with that.
Look, the more I think about this, the more I think ’so what’. The deal with the Lakers set the market price for the Gardens. The Trappers could take it or leave it — held their breath until they turned blue, and returned to Haileybury, Powassan, Sturgeon Falls or tried Kirkland Lake or Timmins. With no gun to their heads, they took it in a three-year deal.
And the Trappers arent a community-owned team and arent a non-profit organization. The team is a business, and theyve had a good run in North Bay (one I as a casual fan hope continues), almost as long as the other long term franchises.
And lets be honest about the players. At best only about a third are from North Bay. Junior hockey is a bit like college or university. As an 18, 19 or 20 year old, its great to be able to go in your hometown, but most likely youre moving away, and at that age youre old enough to live away from family.
So what happens if the Trappers move or fold?
Somehow before that happened, I suspect that the city would offer concessions, a new owner would be found, or that some other team would be willing to try the best potential market in the region. Presuming the worst, however, the Gardens and the city would definitely be out of pocket, but maybe not as much as would seem at first glance. A more generous deal for the Gardens would be made with the midget Trappers, and their time at W. Ferris would easily be filled.
To be fair, I don’t hear the Trappers saying the deal signed earlier this year has to be re-opened, just that it makes operating difficult. That’s understandable.
But despite the Gardens bill, the Trappers still have the best market for attendance and sponsorships. Soo and Copper Cliff don’t come close, and the rest dont even belong in the same league in terms of market potential.
Heck, in a poor year to date the Trappers still lead the league in attendance by a good margin, and outdraw all other teams, except IF, by two, three, four and even five to one with the highest attendance months yet to come.
We don’t need to shed tears for them yet.
If the city would do their own marketing and concessions the rental rates can go down as they have another form of revenue stream – if they would actively recruit other attractions and events they would have more revenue streams . The problem is the Management of the Memorial Gardens . What other Junior hockey club has a paid public address announcer – time keepers , rink crew and and a crew of security officials that have a pretty easy job to do during any event including trapper hockey . Why is it fair for the figure skating club to have to pay a city employee to play music for them during their ice time – to pay a clean up fee for the hall of fame room when they get it and its a mess. If you want to run it like a top notch special event and activity centre then bring in the top notch attractions . Really i feel for the trappers – I think the lakers stole the farm from under the city’s eyes – but i guess thats not too hard seeing who’s minding the store – good luck to the lakers and the trappers in the new year – i will attend games regularily and continue to rant and rave about the mangement of the facility.