Is Junior ‘A’ hockey coming to Barrhead?
While the initial response from the Town of Barrhead was an enthusiastic “yes,” it seems there are a number of questions that councillors need an answer to before they decide to pursue the possibility in earnest.
During the June 11 council meeting, Town of Barrhead CAO Edward LeBlanc said the municipality was approached by the Western Provinces Hockey Association (WPHA) in May asking if the municipality would be interested in having a franchise.
The WPHA is a Canadian division subsidiary of the American-based Tier II Junior ‘A’ Western States Hockey League (WSHL).
The WSHL was formed in 1994 and in the 2018–19 regular season featured 23 teams competing across five divisions playing approximately 50 games in the regular season schedule. The Canadian division of the WPHA was created in the 2018-2019 season with four teams in Cold Lake, Edson, Hinton and Meadow Lake, Sask.
LeBlanc said he and parks and recreation director Shallon Touet met with a WPHA rep and toured the Barrhead Agrena.
“He was very impressed with our facility and wanted to move forward with it with the possibility of signing an agreement with us,” LeBlanc said, noting if they came to an agreement they could ice a team for the upcoming season.
LeBlanc said one of the conditions the WPHA asked for was the exclusive use of two change rooms, one of which would serve as an office for the coaching staff. (The Agrena has six changerooms.)
After subsequent discussions with the representative, LeBlanc said they agreed upon designating one change room for the WPHA.
LeBlanc then recommended councillors pass two motions, which chief administrative officer Edward LeBlanc said would almost guarantee the town receiving a team for the 2019/2020 season.
The first motion was to allow the WPHA team exclusive use of one of the Agrena’s dressing rooms, while the other was to set the hourly ice rental rate for the team at $80 per hour for the team’s weekday practices. LeBlanc said the team would need weekday morning or afternoon ice-time for practices.
The fee schedule for hourly ice rental is $107 for youth, $94 before 9 a.m., school rentals $43 and non-local adult skating $189. To come up with a daytime rate for the WPHA, Touet contacted all the league’s Alberta teams and asked them about their rates.
“[Practice rates] ranged from 100 per cent of the game rate to 30 per cent, so we took out the low and high rates and averaged the remaining ones to come up with $80 per hour [for practices],” LeBlanc said, noting the WPHA is OK with the rate.
Rental dispute
Despite the initial enthusiasm for bringing in a junior hockey team, the town is now rethinking the deal after Barrhead Leader reporter Barry Kerton suggested they needed to investigate the league more closely due to recent media reports about the WPHA’s Hinton team.
In a June 6 statement, the Town of Hinton states the contract they had with the WPHA Wildcats organization for the use of their recreation centre is no longer valid.
“As a result of the Wildcats failing to pay the amounts required by the agreement or to remedy those defaults in the time required, that agreement was terminated. There is no longer any agreement between the Town and the Wildcats,” the release stated.
Town of Hinton chief administrative officer (CAO) Martin Taylor said in an e-mail to the Barrhead Leader that a new team with local ownership, the Timberwolves, has expressed interest in playing in a U.S. based league.
The Leader contacted WSHL commissioner Ron White for comment but did not receive a reply prior to publication.
As a result of these issues, mayor Dave McKenzie has said the town has decided to delay discussions with the WPHA until they know more about the Hinton situation.
Coun. Shelley Oswald fully supported the effort, noting it had been many years since the community had that level of hockey, but said the town needed to talk to other users of the arena first before coming to decision, a sentiment Coun. Dausen Kluin shared.
LeBlanc said due to the lead-up time a new team would need to get everything in place, from hiring their coaching staff to inviting players for training camp, there wouldn’t be time, but added they would talk to all the users of the arena.
Coun. Rod Klumph said he was concerned if there was enough ice-time available, adding he would hate to have a junior team come in at the expense of losing a Barrhead Minor Hockey Association squad.
Touet noted WPHA teams mainly played on Fridays, meaning they would have to shuffle Barrhead’s midget team games, but that it was doable.
McKenzie said the benefits of having a junior hockey team would reach far beyond the ice.
“The ripple effect of having a team of this calibre functioning out of our community. It is a great opportunity at so many levels from the fan base and economic activity to having the athletes embedding themselves in the community,” he said.
Coun. Ty Assaf said they had an obligation to find ways to lower the cost of recreation in town and bringing in a Junior ‘A’ hockey team was the perfect way to do it.
“I’m just seeing the spin-offs and dollars and dollars coming in, from sharing advertising revenue to liquor sales,” he said.
In his request for a decision by council, LeBlanc noted the WHPA would be seeking a liquor licence to sell alcohol at its games.
Assaf noted the WHPA rules allowed 14 import (non-North American born) players and allowed players up to 20 years in age. There was no limit on the number of 20-year-olds they could have.
“As much as our stakeholders are involved in our programming, we cannot afford not to go forward with this,” he said.
