When they dropped the puck, they may as well have dropped the question as well. Will the BC Hockey League come back to Quesnel? It was an open discussion all around the West Fraser Centre, when the BCHL brought in its annual Road Show Weekend. The rink was built expressly to try attracting the province’s highest ranking Junior-A league back to the city it had called home for decades, and here it was with a pair of games. Would there be more?
“Quesnel has always been on our radar as an expansion market. We think it would be great for Prince George, for sure,” said the league’s CEO Chris Hebb to The Observer. And indeed the Spruce Kings up the highway would benefit from the short road trips for a divisional rival in the Heart Of Gold City. Their next nearest away game is Vernon.
Sixteen of the league’s 17 teams are within 140 kms of the American border. Those southern teams would also relish more than one team to play on the long northern journey they must invest in.
“What’s really needed is an owner,” Hebb said. “The league doesn’t own a team. We need somebody who says ‘we would really like to make a go of it in Quesnel.’ We have an expansion fee they would have to come up with, and it’s north of a million dollars, so somebody’s got to come up with the money, and you’d need the support of corporate partners, you’d need the support of the City, you’d need an arena but from what we’ve seen (of West Fraser Centre) the arena here isn’t the problem.”
There have been potential investors talk publicly about bringing the BCHL back to Quesnel since its departure at the end of the 2010 season when the longtime Millionaires packed up, shipped south, and became the Chilliwack Chiefs. It was a business decision the owners of the day felt was necessary. The conditions have changed greatly since then, such as the construction of the arena, opened in 2017.
Something else that’s changed is a First Nation with a track record of fruitful investments and a taste for social enterprise. Lhtako Dene Nation (LDN) chief Clifford Lebrun and the contingent from LDN council and administration were the most visible partners of the Road Show Weekend, and Lebrun used language that did not extinguish the hopes of fans in the building. The question became palpable: would the LDN make history and become the enabling investor in an expansion franchise?
The Observer flat out asked him.
“We’re getting there,” said Lebrun. “We have to take a look at what all’s involved. We had some conversations. It could bring the whole town together.”
All due respect to the BCHL for bringing their hockey heft to town, but they are not the only option, should the math not work out.
The Greater Metro Hockey League based in Ontario attempted an expansion into several northern B.C. towns much smaller than Quesnel and showed some signs of potential before shutting down in clouds of business controversy.
The Kootenay International Junior Hockey League (KIJHL) is another matter. That league is long established, has Quesnel players rostered on some of their teams, and has long outgrown their Kootenay name. When asked by The Observer if Quesnel might be an interesting market for expansion, league commissioner Jeff Dubois replied, “We’ve had a number of inquiries regarding a potential expansion team in Quesnel and we’re certainly listening if a compelling application is brought forward. There’s no question that Quesnel is a community deserving of a Junior hockey team.”
It was certainly a matter of town pride when the Millionaires were operating. That team’s history can boast some stellar alumni - Sheldon Souray, Gilbert Brule, Trevor Smith, Jamie Leach, etc. - but even more importantly it can also tout a lot of local players who were able to ply their hockey careers right here in their home community awhile, as players and/or coaches. Some fit into both camps like Carey Price, Brad and Ken Gassoff, and Brett Festerling.
The Millionaires started out in the Peace Cariboo Junior Hockey League in 1975, a Junior-B tier. After 20 years, the team adjusted to the Junior-A BCHL and carried on until the move to Chilliwack. There has been a yearning ever since to see Junior hockey come back.
“We don’t want to set up a team in a market that’s going to fail. And we don’t want to disappoint people because they had a team for a couple of years and then they left,” said Hebb. “So it’s going to take some time to develop the right person, the right group, who can say ‘we are in this for the long haul.’”
The Spruce Kings in Prince George are owned by a community not-for-profit society. The Trail Smoke Eaters are operated out of a community less than half Quesnel’s population size. The Powell River Kings are in a similar sized market, but economically isolated. Some teams in the BHL have direct competition from other hockey entities and even other sports that affect their business models. Yet they all find a way to thrive, and Hebb said the future of the BCHL is looking intensely positive, as a league.
Maybe Quesnel can be part of that forward vision.
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