Friday, March 13, 2015
The Moving of the Bulls-A London Perspective
Sports
OHL
Major
junior hockey shows its true colours again as small city Belleville loses its
team to big city — and big money — Hamilton
By Morris Dalla Costa, The London Free Press
Thursday, March 12, 2015 10:33:26
EDT PM
Brody Silk, middle, of the Sudbury
Wolves, attempts to fire a puck past Charlie Graham, of the Belleville Bulls,
during OHL action at the Sudbury Community Arena in Sudbury, Ont. on Friday
March 6, 2015. (QMI Agency)
Earlier this year it was the
Plymouth Whalers who were sold and moved to Flint.
Last year it was the Brampton
Battalion that moved to North Bay.
Thursday it was the Belleville Bulls
who after being in Belleville since 1981were sold and will move to Hamilton.
The message can’t get clearer.
The Ontario Hockey League is no
longer a mom and pop operation. It can no longer subsist on tradition and good
feelings. It is going the way of professional hockey. It is a business and like
all businesses it’s either supported or goes out of business or it moves where
operators of that business think they can be successful.
And it doesn’t just come down to
fans. It comes down to what a city wants to do to keep a franchise.
Consider any business that wants to
set up in a city especially if the business is as big as an OHL franchise. Big
businesses that attract flow-through dollars that bring positive publicity to a
city; those businesses expect to be treated differently. They expect to get
help making their business successful because in the long run, it proves
advantageous to the city.
Brampton didn’t attract enough fans.
The Bulls had issues with their arena as did the Whalers. All three teams opted
to move or sell.
It’s a bitter pill to swallow for
those that supported those teams but the business wheels of the OHL grind on
relentlessly.
“The Bulls have been a part of the
Belleville community for over 30 years and we respect the role they have played
in the community,” OHL commissioner David Branch said. “It is the OHL’s hope .
. . that one day, with the right conditions, OHL hockey will return to
Belleville.”
Translation: The team and league
tried to work things out in terms of arena improvements and hoped to draw more
fans. It didn’t happen so we’re letting the team move and maybe, if you get
another chance, the city will have learned its lesson.
No one is suggesting any city in the
league kowtow to a private businessperson who owns an OHL team and gives them
whatever they want. But that is a decision each city has to make on its own and
with its taxpayers.
Is it worth it?
If the answer is no, the fans and
city need to recognize that if they can’t meet the demands of a hockey team’s
owner then that owner will do what he needs to do to make money because they
take the risks.
The approval for the move went
through with the speed of sound. The OHL Board of Governors announced the
approval of the transfer Thursday.
The team will be called the Hamilton
Bulldogs, to replace the Bulldogs of the American Hockey League who are pulling
up stakes.
Hamilton has a long history of major
junior hockey including the Red Wings, Fincups, Steelhawks, Dukes of Hamilton
and others.
Dale Hunter, coach of the London
Knights but also majority owner of the team, doesn’t have to worry much about
fans or arena. He’s in a building with more than 9,000, which are full most
games, and has plenty of private boxes. The Knights are one of the most
successful junior hockey franchises in the country.
“I can’t really comment on the
situation in Belleville because I don’t know everything about what was going
on,” he said. “I know though that the change in hockey has been unbelievable.
You look at the number of fans and the buildings — you have to be able to keep
up.”
Hunter understands how difficult a
situation would have to be in order to move a long-located franchise.
“It would be a very hard decision to
make to move a team,” he said. “A very hard decision.”
Knights’ Aaron Berisha played with
the Bulls.
“I’m a little shocked,” he said.
“But on the other hand, I’m not really surprised. It’s an older arena and there
were some problems last year. It’s too bad.
“There were some games when we
didn’t get a lot of people but the fans were great. It was a good city to play
in.”
That may have been good enough 10
years ago, but it isn’t anymore. Don’t take it personally, it’s strictly
business.
Teams either move ahead or move
away.