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Post by Briwhel on Aug 5, 2022 8:07:51 GMT -4
The city of Bathurst said that they did what they could on their end but what did they do exactly? Did they explored the way that Baie-Comeau run/own their Q team? For a small market like Bathurst, That's what should be done... Local municipalities are mostly broke as well. They generally can't get involved in investing in businesses where the downside is massive. Are you all willing to pay more taxes or higher water bills so the local team can break even? I think we know where that conversation ends up. That's not a fair question though, because the Titan draw a lot of support from people outside of Bathurst. Bathurst proper only has 12K people, so you would essentially need the region to buy the team. |
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Post by Jack Bauer on Aug 5, 2022 8:38:32 GMT -4
Local municipalities are mostly broke as well. They generally can't get involved in investing in businesses where the downside is massive. Are you all willing to pay more taxes or higher water bills so the local team can break even? I think we know where that conversation ends up. That's not a fair question though, because the Titan draw a lot of support from people outside of Bathurst. Bathurst proper only has 12K people, so you would essentially need the region to buy the team. It is a fair question as the city of Bathurst is actually an entity who could in theory buy a team. An elected northern New Brunswick regional government with the power to invest in local business does not exist so there isn't one to purchase a team for the region to try and support. I'm sure every Q team draws from outside its Municipal boundary but its pretty clear who would need to buy the team when using the Baie Comeau comparison and it would be the city and the municipal government. |
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Post by Briwhel on Aug 5, 2022 8:50:32 GMT -4
That's not a fair question though, because the Titan draw a lot of support from people outside of Bathurst. Bathurst proper only has 12K people, so you would essentially need the region to buy the team. It is a fair question as the city of Bathurst is actually an entity who could in theory buy a team. An elected northern New Brunswick regional government with the power to invest in local business does not exist so there isn't one to purchase a team for the region to try and support. I'm sure every Q team draws from outside its Municipal boundary but its pretty clear who would need to buy the team when using the Baie Comeau comparison and it would be the city and the municipal government. They could easily have a joint deal between the Chaleur rural district, Belledune, Belle-Baie and Bathurst now that there aren't a bunch of LSDs. |
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Post by Reesor on Aug 5, 2022 8:56:47 GMT -4
I think if the city of Bathurst thinks having a QMJHL team is a good enough investment to justify the initial price tag, they would purchase the team themselves to ensure it stays. Having the Titan in Bathurst helps local restaurants and bars, and gives an entertainment option to the younger generation. But if a Junior A hockey team would do the same, or do similar for far less of an initial investment and far less overhead, then there's little or no incentive to invest in major junior hockey. Edmunston is doing fantastic with Junior A hockey, and it's not hard to imagine Bathurst could have similar success if done properly.
That press release is so ambiguous it's borderline sad. They might as well come out and say "Please purchase season tickets and keep up a float during these next couple down seasons so we can promptly move to Montreal when our rink is ready". They know darn well a downswing is coming. Bathurst's junior hockey cycle is about to hit it's lowest point, and they practically have their finger on the button to say "We tried, but we got no support". Every team loses a significant percentage of their ticket sales in down years. In order to properly attempt to keep the team in Bathurst, they need to keep it in Bathurst through a complete junior hockey cycle, which would be 3-5 seasons from this point. But I don't think that is the intent.
It's too bad for the loyal fans of the Titan that have to go through this. If it were me, it would be difficult not to just say "fold the team, move to Montreal when you're ready, get us a Junior A team, and get it over with". But they won't do that. They'll do a huge sell off this year, get a boatload of picks and prospects, rebuild properly, and move to Montreal right when the team gets good again to ensure buzz gets created right away. It's pretty transparent.
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Post by Jack Bauer on Aug 5, 2022 9:00:31 GMT -4
It is a fair question as the city of Bathurst is actually an entity who could in theory buy a team. An elected northern New Brunswick regional government with the power to invest in local business does not exist so there isn't one to purchase a team for the region to try and support. I'm sure every Q team draws from outside its Municipal boundary but its pretty clear who would need to buy the team when using the Baie Comeau comparison and it would be the city and the municipal government. They could easily have a joint deal between the Chaleur rural district, Belledune, Belle-Baie and Bathurst now that there aren't a bunch of LSDs. They can easily sell a money losing business to 4 different municipal governments? Why is a village of under 1500 people like Belledune willing to buy into a money losing Q team 30 minutes down the road? Something tells me you've never tried to do business with 1 municipal government let alone trying to get 4 on the same page of how to save a clear money losing business if you think getting it together is at all easy. |
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Post by Jack Bauer on Aug 5, 2022 9:06:57 GMT -4
I think if the city of Bathurst thinks having a QMJHL team is a good enough investment to justify the initial price tag, they would purchase the team themselves to ensure it stays. Having the Titan in Bathurst helps local restaurants and bars, and gives an entertainment option to the younger generation. But if a Junior A hockey team would do the same, or do similar for far less of an initial investment and far less overhead, then there's little or no incentive to invest in major junior hockey. Edmunston is doing fantastic with Junior A hockey, and it's not hard to imagine Bathurst could have similar success if done properly. That press release is so ambiguous it's borderline sad. They might as well come out and say "Please purchase season tickets and keep up a float during these next couple down seasons so we can promptly move to Montreal when our rink is ready". They know darn well a downswing is coming. Bathurst's junior hockey cycle is about to hit it's lowest point, and they practically have their finger on the button to say "We tried, but we got no support". Every team loses a significant percentage of their ticket sales in down years. In order to properly attempt to keep the team in Bathurst, they need to keep it in Bathurst through a complete junior hockey cycle, which would be 3-5 seasons from this point. But I don't think that is the intent. It's too bad for the loyal fans of the Titan that have to go through this. If it were me, it would be difficult not to just say "fold the team, move to Montreal when you're ready, get us a Junior A team, and get it over with". But they won't do that. They'll do a huge sell off this year, get a boatload of picks and prospects, rebuild properly, and move to Montreal right when the team gets good again to ensure buzz gets created right away. It's pretty transparent. I'm also not convinced there is a huge difference to local restaurant and bars in markets where 2000 or under are attending games. Most Q teams have 2-3 game homestands. Most people are not eating out on every game day around the arena. The teams would eat and stay at hotels but outside of the really big markets I dont think there is huge demand from the ticket holders in terms of eating out around the arena on gamedays. I feel like the argument could even be made that without the tickets to purchase...there may actually be more money to spend at the local restaurant in these smaller places. |
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Post by mikeb on Aug 6, 2022 19:55:01 GMT -4
I think if the city of Bathurst thinks having a QMJHL team is a good enough investment to justify the initial price tag, they would purchase the team themselves to ensure it stays. Having the Titan in Bathurst helps local restaurants and bars, and gives an entertainment option to the younger generation. But if a Junior A hockey team would do the same, or do similar for far less of an initial investment and far less overhead, then there's little or no incentive to invest in major junior hockey. Edmunston is doing fantastic with Junior A hockey, and it's not hard to imagine Bathurst could have similar success if done properly. That press release is so ambiguous it's borderline sad. They might as well come out and say "Please purchase season tickets and keep up a float during these next couple down seasons so we can promptly move to Montreal when our rink is ready". They know darn well a downswing is coming. Bathurst's junior hockey cycle is about to hit it's lowest point, and they practically have their finger on the button to say "We tried, but we got no support". Every team loses a significant percentage of their ticket sales in down years. In order to properly attempt to keep the team in Bathurst, they need to keep it in Bathurst through a complete junior hockey cycle, which would be 3-5 seasons from this point. But I don't think that is the intent. It's too bad for the loyal fans of the Titan that have to go through this. If it were me, it would be difficult not to just say "fold the team, move to Montreal when you're ready, get us a Junior A team, and get it over with". But they won't do that. They'll do a huge sell off this year, get a boatload of picks and prospects, rebuild properly, and move to Montreal right when the team gets good again to ensure buzz gets created right away. It's pretty transparent. Exactly as what happened when the Titan moved here. |
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Post by sec19fan on Sept 22, 2022 6:05:46 GMT -4
Article in Acadie Nouvelle this morning by Robert Legacé states that there has been a committee formed to keep the team in Bathurst. They are working to establish a group of community minority shareholders. They want to offer the possibility to fans and small businesses to own a share of their favourite team. They have apparently already stirred up a lot of interest including some of the former members from the current group of shareholders.
Will be an interesting story to follow.
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Post by Jack Bauer on Sept 22, 2022 8:41:51 GMT -4
Article in Acadie Nouvelle this morning by Robert Legacé states that there has been a committee formed to keep the team in Bathurst. They are working to establish a group of community minority shareholders. They want to offer the possibility to fans and small businesses to own a share of their favourite team. They have apparently already stirred up a lot of interest including some of the former members from the current group of shareholders. Will be an interesting story to follow. What a complete mess. Where was this before the local owners sold to someone from out of town? It could end up that the new group needs to buy another team and move them there at this point. |
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Post by scotiahockey on Sept 22, 2022 8:47:28 GMT -4
Article in Acadie Nouvelle this morning by Robert Legacé states that there has been a committee formed to keep the team in Bathurst. They are working to establish a group of community minority shareholders. They want to offer the possibility to fans and small businesses to own a share of their favourite team. They have apparently already stirred up a lot of interest including some of the former members from the current group of shareholders. Will be an interesting story to follow. What a complete mess. Where was this before the local owners sold to someone from out of town? It could end up that the new group needs to buy another team and move them there at this point. This is the same song and dance every time it’s talked about them leaving though. They drum up community support, find new shareholders and ultimately that group of people fizzles out and they get tired of losing money and someone else has to come along. There’s very few markets that can sustain Q teams, most communities are too small and the cost has become so prohibitive that some of the owners can’t really do it. I don’t think we’re that far away from seeing the Q shrink in teams or having some kind of revenue sharing program because the CHL is a supposed developmental league and I think as costs keep going up, and interest keeps going down, you’ll find a lot of owners simply walk away from this. |
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Post by Jack Bauer on Sept 22, 2022 9:06:42 GMT -4
What a complete mess. Where was this before the local owners sold to someone from out of town? It could end up that the new group needs to buy another team and move them there at this point. This is the same song and dance every time it’s talked about them leaving though. They drum up community support, find new shareholders and ultimately that group of people fizzles out and they get tired of losing money and someone else has to come along. There’s very few markets that can sustain Q teams, most communities are too small and the cost has become so prohibitive that some of the owners can’t really do it. I don’t think we’re that far away from seeing the Q shrink in teams or having some kind of revenue sharing program because the CHL is a supposed developmental league and I think as costs keep going up, and interest keeps going down, you’ll find a lot of owners simply walk away from this. Its inevitable. And my community will also lose our team eventually if nothing changes. There's a serious issue with the CHL model when 5,000 seat rink markets are no longer viable. |
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Post by Briwhel on Sept 22, 2022 9:50:53 GMT -4
Article in Acadie Nouvelle this morning by Robert Legacé states that there has been a committee formed to keep the team in Bathurst. They are working to establish a group of community minority shareholders. They want to offer the possibility to fans and small businesses to own a share of their favourite team. They have apparently already stirred up a lot of interest including some of the former members from the current group of shareholders. Will be an interesting story to follow. What a complete mess. Where was this before the local owners sold to someone from out of town? It could end up that the new group needs to buy another team and move them there at this point. At this point, it seems like the team is still locally owned but that the "prospective owner" has been allowed to call the shots and damage the product |
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Post by Citris on Sept 22, 2022 10:40:14 GMT -4
The messaging around trying to keep the team in Bathurst could also be manufactured too.
I mean they saw what happened in Lewiston when fans knew the team was leaving, or at least that that was the plan. People are more likely to be invested in a franchise that's sticking around than one that's leaving.
If the Titan are going anywhere, than it's in the best interest of the owners to keep that under wraps until the summer the move happens.
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Post by jimmy on Sept 22, 2022 11:42:01 GMT -4
Article in Acadie Nouvelle this morning by Robert Legacé states that there has been a committee formed to keep the team in Bathurst. They are working to establish a group of community minority shareholders. They want to offer the possibility to fans and small businesses to own a share of their favourite team. They have apparently already stirred up a lot of interest including some of the former members from the current group of shareholders. Will be an interesting story to follow. What a complete mess. Where was this before the local owners sold to someone from out of town? It could end up that the new group needs to buy another team and move them there at this point. I agree ... my suspicion, though I could be proven wrong, is that most if not all all community minded business people who have the means and interest to invest in a major junior team would have already come out of the woodwork the last time the team was purchased by a broad based community ownership group from LGM. Those who did not get involved at that time likely lacked the interest, the capital, or both. I do not doubt that someone is trying to form a committee to keep the team in town ... but I am skeptical that they will come up with enough capital to do so. |
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galixon
Blue-Chip Prospect
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Post by galixon on Sept 22, 2022 20:05:32 GMT -4
What a complete mess. Where was this before the local owners sold to someone from out of town? It could end up that the new group needs to buy another team and move them there at this point. I agree ... my suspicion, though I could be proven wrong, is that most if not all all community minded business people who have the means and interest to invest in a major junior team would have already come out of the woodwork the last time the team was purchased by a broad based community ownership group from LGM. Those who did not get involved at that time likely lacked the interest, the capital, or both. I do not doubt that someone is trying to form a committee to keep the team in town ... but I am skeptical that they will come up with enough capital to do so. We’re not talking about local business people buying the team tho. We are talking about a bunch of small community shares buying made available, to anyone even fans. |
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