Matt Kolle, a Quesnel businessman and the assistant general manager to the Kamloops Storm, continues to work towards expanding the Kootenay International Junior Hockey League (KIJHL) to include a team in Quesnel.
The first two Kamloops Storm games at West Fraser Centre on Nov. 17 and 18 attracted more than a thousand Quesnel residents, and KIJHL president Bill Ohlhausen was there to witness it, after being invited to the games by Kolle and Storm general manager Barry Dewar.
Kolle says he was very happy with the turnout to the games, and was pleased the president came up to witness it.
“We had a good KIJHL exposure,” he says.
“I believe we as a community demonstrated the high level we can function at and that the support from our community is very, very strong. The president can take his findings from the weekend and share it with the rest of the governors in the league.
“For Quesnel and our bid for a KIJHL franchise, I think these findings are very positive and really strengthen our bid.”
Ohlhausen says he was very impressed with the crowd and the West Fraser Centre; however, he reiterates that he has no vote when it comes to expansion of the league.
“The membership makes the decision by vote, and I don’t have a vote.”
The KIJHL board will meet Jan. 14, and Ohlhausen says he is aware Kolle and his supporters will likely be there to present their case for expansion once again.
KIJHL board director Tom Bachynski, who also sits on the KIJHL expansion committee, says Quesnel and Williams Lake (which also submitted an application last year) are not the only cities inquiring about expansion, and the league has to carefully weigh the benefits to the entire membership.
“At the end of the day, it’s about whether we can sustain more than 20 teams in the Interior. Quesnel has a great opportunity, but how many more teams does the KI expand to before it self implodes?”
Bachynski says that it might be more sustainable for Quesnel to buy one of the existing KI franchises that are in financial trouble and relocate it north, to keep the league at 20 teams. He notes that the league’s board would still have the ability to approve or deny a relocation proposal.
Bachynski also suggests that perhaps Kamloops Storm manager Dewar is thinking of relocating the team to Quesnel, but Dewar denies this.
“Never say never, but my plan is not to move the Storm up to Quesnel,” says Dewar.
“I think expansion is the way to go. The league gets an expansion fee of anywhere from $50,000 to $150,000. For a relocation, they get $5,000. So why would they move a team rather than expand?
“There are things that come into play – realigning divisions, who travels where – but they need to take note of how many people came out to the games in Quesnel.”
Dewar thinks Kolle has a good chance to get the league to expand now that Quesnel has shown the kind of crowds a KI game can attract, but he says the next few Storm games on Dec. 8-9 will give the league the bigger picture.
“I think it will be interesting to see when we come up in a few weeks whether there’s 40 people there or the same sort of crowd as in November.
“But there was great support and good sponsorship. All those businesses really stepped up, it was huge. I think that’s what Matt can work into his new business plan. It’s not just, ‘I think we can get it,’ it’s, ‘We got it.’”
Bachynski acknowledges that expansion to Quesnel and Williams Lake would be good for the Cariboo, but he has reservations when it comes to the best interests of the league and its teams.
“It’s very romantic to say Quesnel should have a KI franchise, but there are a lot of things that need to be looked at. It has to make sense for everybody.
“We run budgets of more than $400,000 for playing and it’s not a money-making venture, it’s a passion and a community event. There’s a lot that goes in to it.
“Trust me, the league would love to get a franchise fee from Quesnel and away we go, but we can’t do it at the risk of jeopardizing other franchises.”