“Sale” – even though it was on everyone’s minds, the word was not uttered once at the Lethbridge Hurricanes annual general meeting.
In fact, the feeling in room on Monday night was more a sense of hope for this season, a sign the tide might be changing for an organization that was bleeding money just last year.
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According to the club’s audit report, the Hurricanes lost $486,253 in the 2014-15 season, in addition to the $390,331 deficit that was carried over from the 2013-14 season, making the total franchise losses more than $2 million over the last six seasons.
“We had a tough budget to report, and it’s never easy to report losses,” said Doug Paisley, board president.
He alluded last year’s losses to the uncertainty of the sale of the franchise looming over the team, putting the season on hold.
“The reason you lose money is because people stop coming to the games, people stop advertising, your players aren’t sure if they are going to be here next year so they stop performing. Everything stalls.”
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This season the hockey club is attempting to totally revamp itself, cutting expenses by $100,000 – reviewing all contracts for services and conducting an internal audit of all office positions.
The team has budgeted to make a profit of around $150,000 this year.
On top of generating more revenue, general manager Peter Anholt said it’s time to change attitudes and “stop blaming players”.
“The bottom line is, we as staff, we as management, we’re the ones that set the tone, we’re the ones that give the kids the opportunity to develop,” he added.
Anholt explained everyone, including the players, want to be a stepping stone of the franchise.
In addition, the Hurricanes are now offering ‘Par Value’ shares for $1000 each, as a long-term solution to generate more money, allowing the organization not to rely so heavily on borrowing funds in the future.
“Our season ticket numbers are low,” said Paisley. “We needed capital to operate and we would love to get rid of some financing charges to operate the right way.”
Currently, the team has around 2200 shares in total, but only 900 shareholders are considered active.
The Hurricanes have sold roughly 2000 tickets so far for this hockey season.
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Elections were also held for the team’s board of directors. Incumbents Doug Paisley, Brent McDowell and Dave Olson all kept their spots.
A newcomer to the board is city councillor Blaine Hyggen, who says he cleared any potential conflict of interest in dealing with the Hurricanes with the city solicitor.
Others added to the board are former Hurricanes general manager and business manager, Darren Stocker, radio sales person and occasional Hurricanes colour commentator, Ryan Tunall.
Former president Brian McNaughton, Nick Polychronopolous and Pat Shimbashi chose not to run again.
With files from Paul Kingsmith
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