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Post by knuckles on Jun 10, 2023 9:17:19 GMT -4
Freddy market would be saturated. Jr. A & USport already are not drawing great currently, they'd likely have to play out of the Willie on the north side so not great... no way the Aitken Centre has availability.
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Post by knuckles on Jun 10, 2023 9:30:05 GMT -4
Crazy talk here, but do you guys think Fredericton would be more viable than Bathurst? I’m going to throw a place out there that I’m surprised has never been talked about. Truro. They have a fairly new arena that sits 5000ish (not sure on the exact number). It’s really close to Halifax I know but travel wise it makes sense when Quebec teams come to the maritimes. 1 hour from Halifax, 2 hours from Moncton, 2.5 hours from Charlottetown and is the obvious stop before any game to or from Cape Breton. I think they can draw crowds it just who would own it? Truro is a perfect fit in terms of location/rink/town but unless the Bearcats leave, don't see it as possible to support Jr. A/Major Junior. The arena I think is 3100 for hockey but beautiful... it would actually be a wicked setup from a players/coaches/hockey ops perspective for a small market Major Junior team. Checked their attendance (Jr. A), between 1000-1200 in playoffs & between 800-1000 for regular season weekend games, 500-700 weekday nights. I feel the Q could attract a few more fans, but still a tough number to increase significantly. Would need to be a lot of community buy-in for a town of 13k. Tough to draw on surrounding areas of Pictou & Amherst Jr. A too. Would come down to also moving the Bearcats, which opens up a whole new conversation that I am curious if anyone would go for. |
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Post by lirette on Jun 20, 2023 20:17:20 GMT -4
Truro has basically the same population as Bathurst. I really don't see any way that move would happen.
My personal hope is to see a team move to the US someday, I've given up on Fredericton.
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Post by Citris on Jun 20, 2023 21:53:45 GMT -4
Truro is a perfect fit in terms of location/rink/town but unless the Bearcats leave, don't see it as possible to support Jr. A/Major Junior. The arena I think is 3100 for hockey but beautiful... it would actually be a wicked setup from a players/coaches/hockey ops perspective for a small market Major Junior team. Checked their attendance (Jr. A), between 1000-1200 in playoffs & between 800-1000 for regular season weekend games, 500-700 weekday nights. I feel the Q could attract a few more fans, but still a tough number to increase significantly. Would need to be a lot of community buy-in for a town of 13k. Tough to draw on surrounding areas of Pictou & Amherst Jr. A too. Would come down to also moving the Bearcats, which opens up a whole new conversation that I am curious if anyone would go for. With all due respect, the rink in Truro isn't that nice, either. Yes, it's almost brand-new but the way it was set up was... not great. The rink shares ventilation with the pool which means you're risking fog until the coldest days of the year. |
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