St. John's gets QMJHL franchise!!
Oct 31, 2004 20:18:16 GMT -5
Post by Skilly on Oct 31, 2004 20:18:16 GMT -5
Wooo hooo! At last something to look forward to. I was getting bored to tears watching the Baby Leafs the last few years. If the lockout drags on I may get the chance to see Sidney Crosby. My favorite player growing up was Bobby Smith and he supposedly was a driving force behind supporting St. John's, NL and Saint John, NB bids. The bugger was also the clown that wanted the expansion fee raised from 2 million to 3 million. Oh well.
St. John’s gets junior team
BY ROBIN SHORT Telegram Sports Editor
After 14 years in the professional game, the City of St. John’s is moving into the Canadian junior hockey business.
The Quebec Major Junior Hockey League’s (QMJHL) governors voted Saturday to accept St. John’s and Saint John, N.B. as expansion franchises starting next year, giving the league 18 teams.
The league last expanded in 1999 when the Montreal Rocket came on board.
The move into the Canadian Hockey League, the governing body for the country’s three major junior leagues — Quebec major junior, Ontario Hockey League and Western Hockey League — comes as the St. John’s Maple Leafs are packing up their gear and heading to Toronto after what will be 14 years in the American Hockey League.
St. John’s and Saint John, once home to the AHL’s Flames, follow in the footsteps of other Atlantic Canadian cities — Charlottetown, P.E.I., Sydney, N.S., Halifax and Moncton, N.B. — that have eschewed the AHL for major junior hockey.
“The goal is to have expansion into St. John’s and Saint John by the 2005-06 season,” QMJHL president Gilles Courteau told The Telegram late Saturday afternoon from Montreal, where the league’s board of governors had just concluded two days of meetings.
Broad board support
Courteau wouldn’t disclose the vote count in favour of expansion, but said it was, “a big majority.”<br>
A final decision on the addition of the two teams for next season must be made by Nov. 30.
But first, said Courteau, a number of criteria must be met.
Foremost is payment of a $3-million entry fee and guarantees of a travel subsidy that St. John’s will be required to pay, a bill that will run about $175,000 annually.
Before Saturday’s meeting, the expansion fee was $2-million-plus, but Halifax Mooseheads majority owner Bobby Smith proposed hiking the price to $3 million, which means more of an expansion cut for owners of the 16 existing teams.
Also to be hashed out: how the expansion teams will be built, how many players can be selected from each team via the expansion draft and where the new teams select in the midget draft — either first and second or 17th and 18th.
The QMJHL governors meet in two weeks time to decide how many 16-year-olds and Europeans can be protected on each roster from the expansion draft.
They will also have to design new divisions and playoff format, although it’s a given the two new clubs will join P.E.I., Cape Breton, Halifax, Moncton and Acadie-Bathurst in some form of an Atlantic Division.
The league may continue with three divisions, or it could move into an Eastern/Western Conference format.
“We like the quality of the building (Mile One Stadium),” Courteau said when asked what ultimately convinced governors to accept St. John’s. “And the city has expressed a lot of interest the past two years.
“It’s been very successful in the AHL and the only reason why the AHL isn’t staying there is the league made a decision to go south and the only teams in Canada are those close to the border.”<br>
While Courteau didn’t say it, the fact expansion also means the QMJHL locks up Newfoundland talent also played into the governors’ decision.
As it stands, Newfoundlanders are free agents, so to speak, free to play in either Quebec or Ontario. With St. John’s joining the QMJHL, the league gains territorial rights, meaning if a youngster from this province wishes to play major junior hockey, he can only do so in the Quebec league.
St. John’s Sports and Entertainment (SJSE), the board which runs Mile One Stadium and the Leafs, has applied for the junior team. There is also a group headed by well-known St. John’s businessman Derm Dobbin, who attended the weekend meetings in Montreal, vying for the team.
“We’ll give that (the Dobbin) group,” Courteau said, “the criteria, have them fill out an application, submit their bid and the board will make a decision.”<br>
When told only SJSE own the keys to Mile One, Courteau responded: “I’ve heard that, too.”<br>
Glenn Stanford of SJSE said his group has been working on the QMJHL bid since July and was overjoyed St. John’s was accepted for next season.
“The nice thing about this is you can continue on with everything now, from the business relationships you’ve developed (with the Leafs), to the corporate partnerships, the Booster Club and the Leafs Foundation.
“If we had lost a year, people go different ways. And once your corporate partners start spending money elsewhere, it’s tough to get all that back.”<br>
As for Montreal, the city will be returning to the QMJHL — the Rocket played at the Bell Centre until the 2002-03 season before moving to P.E.I. — but not until 2006-07.
Mario Lemieux and Luc Robitaille are part of a group headed by Minnesotan John Donovan, owner of San Diego-based Incode Wireless, who want to bring a team to the Bell Centre.
But it will take franchise relocation for Montreal to secure a team.
It was also decided Saturday’ that if a team wishes to move, there will be no direct sale of one owner to another. Instead, the team’s owner will have to go through the league’s governor, which, sources say, when reading between the lines, means the QMJHL will likely buy the club and then flip it at a profit.
St. John’s gets junior team
BY ROBIN SHORT Telegram Sports Editor
After 14 years in the professional game, the City of St. John’s is moving into the Canadian junior hockey business.
The Quebec Major Junior Hockey League’s (QMJHL) governors voted Saturday to accept St. John’s and Saint John, N.B. as expansion franchises starting next year, giving the league 18 teams.
The league last expanded in 1999 when the Montreal Rocket came on board.
The move into the Canadian Hockey League, the governing body for the country’s three major junior leagues — Quebec major junior, Ontario Hockey League and Western Hockey League — comes as the St. John’s Maple Leafs are packing up their gear and heading to Toronto after what will be 14 years in the American Hockey League.
St. John’s and Saint John, once home to the AHL’s Flames, follow in the footsteps of other Atlantic Canadian cities — Charlottetown, P.E.I., Sydney, N.S., Halifax and Moncton, N.B. — that have eschewed the AHL for major junior hockey.
“The goal is to have expansion into St. John’s and Saint John by the 2005-06 season,” QMJHL president Gilles Courteau told The Telegram late Saturday afternoon from Montreal, where the league’s board of governors had just concluded two days of meetings.
Broad board support
Courteau wouldn’t disclose the vote count in favour of expansion, but said it was, “a big majority.”<br>
A final decision on the addition of the two teams for next season must be made by Nov. 30.
But first, said Courteau, a number of criteria must be met.
Foremost is payment of a $3-million entry fee and guarantees of a travel subsidy that St. John’s will be required to pay, a bill that will run about $175,000 annually.
Before Saturday’s meeting, the expansion fee was $2-million-plus, but Halifax Mooseheads majority owner Bobby Smith proposed hiking the price to $3 million, which means more of an expansion cut for owners of the 16 existing teams.
Also to be hashed out: how the expansion teams will be built, how many players can be selected from each team via the expansion draft and where the new teams select in the midget draft — either first and second or 17th and 18th.
The QMJHL governors meet in two weeks time to decide how many 16-year-olds and Europeans can be protected on each roster from the expansion draft.
They will also have to design new divisions and playoff format, although it’s a given the two new clubs will join P.E.I., Cape Breton, Halifax, Moncton and Acadie-Bathurst in some form of an Atlantic Division.
The league may continue with three divisions, or it could move into an Eastern/Western Conference format.
“We like the quality of the building (Mile One Stadium),” Courteau said when asked what ultimately convinced governors to accept St. John’s. “And the city has expressed a lot of interest the past two years.
“It’s been very successful in the AHL and the only reason why the AHL isn’t staying there is the league made a decision to go south and the only teams in Canada are those close to the border.”<br>
While Courteau didn’t say it, the fact expansion also means the QMJHL locks up Newfoundland talent also played into the governors’ decision.
As it stands, Newfoundlanders are free agents, so to speak, free to play in either Quebec or Ontario. With St. John’s joining the QMJHL, the league gains territorial rights, meaning if a youngster from this province wishes to play major junior hockey, he can only do so in the Quebec league.
St. John’s Sports and Entertainment (SJSE), the board which runs Mile One Stadium and the Leafs, has applied for the junior team. There is also a group headed by well-known St. John’s businessman Derm Dobbin, who attended the weekend meetings in Montreal, vying for the team.
“We’ll give that (the Dobbin) group,” Courteau said, “the criteria, have them fill out an application, submit their bid and the board will make a decision.”<br>
When told only SJSE own the keys to Mile One, Courteau responded: “I’ve heard that, too.”<br>
Glenn Stanford of SJSE said his group has been working on the QMJHL bid since July and was overjoyed St. John’s was accepted for next season.
“The nice thing about this is you can continue on with everything now, from the business relationships you’ve developed (with the Leafs), to the corporate partnerships, the Booster Club and the Leafs Foundation.
“If we had lost a year, people go different ways. And once your corporate partners start spending money elsewhere, it’s tough to get all that back.”<br>
As for Montreal, the city will be returning to the QMJHL — the Rocket played at the Bell Centre until the 2002-03 season before moving to P.E.I. — but not until 2006-07.
Mario Lemieux and Luc Robitaille are part of a group headed by Minnesotan John Donovan, owner of San Diego-based Incode Wireless, who want to bring a team to the Bell Centre.
But it will take franchise relocation for Montreal to secure a team.
It was also decided Saturday’ that if a team wishes to move, there will be no direct sale of one owner to another. Instead, the team’s owner will have to go through the league’s governor, which, sources say, when reading between the lines, means the QMJHL will likely buy the club and then flip it at a profit.
