MONCTON – There was anger and many questions Wednesday after City Council voted to give the Moncton Wildcats $125,000 for moving their game Friday.
The Wildcats, of the QMJHL, are playing their 5th second-round playoff game against the Halifax Mooseheads on Friday.
But a scheduling conflict at the Moncton Coliseum means they will be playing at the Aitken Centre at the University of New Brunswick in Fredericton, instead of their home ice.
In an emergency meeting Tuesday night, councillors agreed to pay the Wildcats $100,000 to cover the cost of the move and lost revenue and also offer a $25,000 credit to the organization on fees it pays to the city.
“That’s ridiculous,” Lisa Ouellet told Global News. “That’s our money. They should have rescheduled. I know it’s hockey and everything, but that’s a lot of money.”
“I think it’s a waste of money that could have been put towards social programs in the city to help people and not a hockey game,” Marck McConnell added. “They should have just rescheduled the game.
The city signed a contract with the Moncton Wildcats on Nov 15, 2013 that runs through the 2015/2016 season. In it, they guaranteed “uninhibited access to the Coliseum for all potential playoff dates in each contract year. The City shall not book any events in the Coliseum that would interfere with such access by the Team from March 15 to May 31 of each contract year.”
Leger said council was made aware that the city had signed a second contract with the annual Radical Speed Sport Car Show to host the show on April 17,18,19. While the show has been held at the Coliseum around this time in April for the last several years, Leger said the contract was not presented to council.
“Which obviously creates a lot of questions in and around why council didn’t see it,” Leger said. “Certainly on a daily basis we can’t see everything. I do think though that now moving forward we need to have better checks and balances. There needs to be accountability for this.”
Leger said both the Wildcats and the Radical Speed Sport show were good customers of the Coliseum and there should have been a plan to accommodate both organizations.
Leger said Tuesday’s decision was an attempt to make a resolution that was good for everyone, but he understands that not everyone agrees with the decision.
When asked why the city agreed to pay the Wildcats for moving their game, when Halifax had not paid a fee to the Mooseheads for moving their game in the first round, Leger said this was the only option brought forward to council in last night’s meeting.
“That figure was obtained through some negotiations with the group and that’s what was presented to council,” he said.
Ryan Jenner, director of business operations for the Wildcats, told Global News that the organization had been trying to negotiate with the car show up until Monday, but they were not able to reach a compromise.
“There’s significant revenue loss here and certainly significant costs in moving the game to Fredericton and that’s how we arrived at that figure,” he said.
He said that while in the past the Wildcats have hosted playoff games at the J. Louis Levesque Arena at the University of Moncton, it no longer met league requirements.
“The Aitken Centre was the only other centre with ice that was a league-approved facility. We looked at Saint John, they don’t have their ice,” he said.
When asked why the Wildcats didn’t reschedule their games, after the Mooseheads offered to swap schedules, Jenner said the team felt they had earned the right to home-ice advantage and this was the next best thing.
“We’re aware that people are upset and we’re going to do everything in our power to help offset those concerns,” he said.
Jenner said that individual ticket holders who do not want to travel to Fredericton can get a refund by calling the Coliseum, while season ticket holders will get a credit on their season ticket packages next year.
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