Column

From The Daily News of Monday, Aug. 27, 2007 . . .

With apologies to the late, great Jimmy Cannon, nobody asked me but . . .
x Well, Kamloops, how does it feel?
The local WHL franchise no longer can be referred to as “your” Blazers. Does
it feel as though an albatross has been removed from around your neck? Or is
there an empty feeling in the pit of your stomach?
What used to be “your” Blazers now are Gaglardi’s Blazers and Doan’s and
Iginla’s and Sydor’s and Recchi’s Blazers. The team still is the Blazers; it
just isn’t “your” Blazers.
Vancouver businessman Tom Gaglardi is the majority partner in River City
Hockey Inc. (RCH), which now owns the Blazers. The team also belongs to
ex-Blazers players Shane Doan, Jarome Iginla, Darryl Sydor and Mark Recchi,
all of them superb NHL players and minority owners in RCH. And good for them
for once again becoming Blazers.
The team never was owned by the community — it was owned by members of the
Kamloops Blazers Sports Society — but the perception in the hockey world and
beyond was that the franchise was community-owned.
Now it’s privately owned, meaning that no matter how you shake it, the team
no longer belongs to you and you and you.
x While no one is talking, at least not publicly, you have to think there’s
an empty feeling in the pits of the stomachs of at least some of the people
who were there on Day 1 some 23 years ago.
Somehow you have to figure that when this all started they didn’t see it
ending in this fashion, at least not with the board of directors getting
sliced and diced in front of fellow members and no one coming to their
defence.
It says here that most of the directors deserved better.
x Buried deep in the information package prepared by RCH and distributed at
Thursday’s meeting was one truly interesting nugget.
Gaglardi hired Donald M. Spence of Spencevaluation, a firm that has a
Kelowna office, to prepare an evaluation of the Kamloops WHL franchise.
One of the things Spence did was to list the recent selling price of 13
major junior franchises. He also noted:
“In addition to the above transactions reviewed by us, we have been advised
that the owner of the Kelowna Rockets . . . received an unsolicited offer
for an estimated $10 million. Similarly, we understand the owner of the
Prince George Cougars received an unsolicited offer of $5 million.”
No, Gaglardi never mentioned a $10-million offer for the Rockets during his
presentation. None of the members seemed to pick up on it either.
But if Bruce Hamilton, the Rockets’ president and general manager, received
a $10-million offer — and he says he did — what might have happened had the
Blazers been placed on the open market?
x RCH had been trying for 14 months to meet with the society’s board. The
board’s position, however, was that the society’s members hadn’t put the
franchise up for sale, therefore the board hadn’t been empowered to accept
offers or to negotiate.
(In the end, in what may have been the most bizarre sale of a team in
sporting history, the franchise never was put up for sale and there weren’t
any negotiations. The members voted on July 11, 2006, that the society’s
assets weren’t for sale; they never did vote to put them up for sale.)
Anyway . . . RCH finally got an opportunity to meet with the board Aug. 13.
Shortly after that meeting, Gaglardi told The Daily News: “I think it was a
productive meeting and we were able to do what we set out to accomplish. It
was a long-time coming and it was a pretty good meeting.”
On Thursday night, Gaglardi told society members: “We were disappointed the
board at that (Aug. 13) meeting took the position that they were only there
to listen and not comment. It was therefore a rather unsuccessful meeting.”
x It’s no secret that the new owners aren’t sold on the job Dean Clark, the
club’s general manager and head coach, has done. It also didn’t help Clark’s
cause that his name appeared quite prominently — as managing partner — in
the first proposal made to the society by Mike Priestner of the
Edmonton-based Mike Priestner Automotive Group.
It was often mentioned over the last month that the Blazers have trouble
getting players to commit to their program, never mind that only two of the
players selected in the 2004, 2005 and 2006 drafts — Jim O’Brien, an
American, and Colin Lidster, a Kamloops lad who now lives in the U.S. — have
chosen not to play here. All 10 of the players taken in the 2007 draft, all
of whom are too young to play in the WHL this season, were in the rookie
camp that finished Saturday night.
It often has been mentioned that things need to be rebuilt. And while that
may be the case in some areas of the organization, someone should get credit
for a team that won 40 games last season and is poised to make a run this
season.
But it’s doubtful if Clark has ever operated under the pressure he is going
to feel this season.
He knows he has to win to impress new owners.
And he knows he has to win in order to attract the attentions of other
owners, perhaps even in other leagues.
x During the transition period that might run into January as the WHL does
its due diligence on RCH and its offer, it will be business as usual in the
hockey department.
Should Clark choose to make a trade, that’s what will happen. As was the
case Friday when he acquired goaltender Justin Leclerc, Clark won’t have to
consult with anyone, not society president Murray Owen, not Gaglardi, not
WHL commissioner Ron Robison.
x While Doan went to great lengths during his impassioned plea Thursday to
state that RCH has no plans to increase ticket prices, you have to wonder
what the expiry date is on that promise. One WHL official said Friday that
the WHL is “two or three years away” having a $20 ticket “across the
league.”
This season, a regular adult ticket to a Blazers game goes for $16.
x Just wondering . . . but do you suppose the new owners might rename the
team the River City Blazers?
Ahh, just kidding!

Gregg Drinnan is sports editor of The Daily News. He is at
gdrinnan@kamloopsnews.ca.