KIJHL clears way for team to move to Kelowna

By MARK HUNTER
Daily News Sports Reporter
Clear the road — the Chase Chiefs are moving to Kelowna.
The Kootenay International Junior Hockey League voted Sunday to allow the Chiefs to relocate, a move that had been rumoured for at least a month.
Bill Ohlhausen, president of the KIJHL, said that Chiefs owner Fred Pittendreigh presented an application to the league about moving the franchise, which Pittendreigh opened in Chase before the 2007-08 season. The application was discussed at Sunday’s league meeting in Revelstoke and was carried by a 10-3 vote. Three teams abstained, and one was absent.
“Fred says he has all the stuff in place, he just has to get the legal stuff done in the next day or two,” said Ohlhausen. “It’s out of the league’s hands now — we’ve done all that we can.”
Pittendreigh could not be reached for comment Sunday. Ohlhausen confirmed that the team is looking to play at the Rutland Arena on the east side of Kelowna.
Pittendreigh isn’t busy packing up the moving trucks — not yet anyway. He still has to get approval from groups in Kelowna, including the minor hockey association and Bruce Hamilton, who owns the WHL’s Kelowna Rockets and has the right to refuse occupancy of any of Kelowna’s city arenas by a hockey team.
Pittendreigh also has to get approval from B.C. Hockey. Its general meeting is scheduled for June 24 in Prince George.
Barry Dewar, owner of the Kamloops Storm and a KIJHL governor, says B.C. Hockey’s approval isn’t simply a rubber-stamp deal. Dewar moved the Storm from Osoyoos to Kamloops before the 2006-07 season.
“While we have a league and rules, B.C. Hockey governs us,” said Dewar, who abstained from Sunday’s vote. “If they think it’s bad, and they might do that for a number of reasons — they might think that because . . . five or six of us at the meeting didn’t say yes — they can stop it.”
Dewar said that there was a lot of debate at the meeting surrounding the move. Pittendreigh told the meeting that he would be adding at least one business partner, and, according to Dewar, said that he still enjoyed running the team, but wanted it to become financially successful.
Dewar said every team that attended the meeting had the opportunity to discuss the good and the bad of moving a team to Kelowna.
“It’s good for the league to have another team in a big market,” Dewar said, “but it’s unfortunate that we lose Chase. As the Kamloops Storm, they’re our best rivals, they’re our best-attended games.
“Chase is a viable market, and I hope that someone there will apply for a new franchise,” he went on. “It was rumoured at the meeting that someone has, but that application hasn’t come into the KIJHL yet.”
With another KIJHL team in a WHL market — Kelowna also has a BCHL team, the Westside Warriors — comes another problem with scheduling.
Already, many of the league’s teams — the Storm included — want the league to make its schedule after the WHL and BCHL, so as to avoid having competing home games on the same night. Right now, the KIJHL’s schedule comes out in June, while the WHL’s doesn’t come out until August.
Ohlhausen said the league will look at changing that.
“There are many teams that are affected by it — Kamloops, people who are close to the Salmon Arm and Penticton BCHL teams . . .,” Ohlhausen said. “We batted around an idea to start up with a mini schedule . . . maybe putting the first month in place and doing the rest after the other schedules come out.”
Another change that may come out of this is the section involving relocation clauses in the constitution.
According to the KIJHL’s constitution, a team looking to relocate must file papers with the league in November. Pittendreigh did so, meaning that Ohlhausen and the executive had to sit on this secret for five months. The league is looking at setting up a committee to deal with such scenarios
“I would welcome that,” said Ohlhausen, with a laugh.
The issue will be discussed further at the league’s annual general meeting, which is scheduled for June 20 at Talking Rock Resort, which is just down the road from Chase.
“The governors realized that we made a mistake putting that date (Nov. 1) in our constitution,” Dewar said. “It will probably be later. When we moved (to Kamloops) from Osoyoos, the date was April 1. It will probably go back to something around there.”
mhunter@kamloopsnews.ca