Blazers have been sold

[scamperdog]

to rivercity hockey more to come....

[MJCO5]

just wanted to state that is a beautiful thing
as well Scamper that is great 1000th post

[scamperdog]

so 194 of the 256 shareholders showed up at the meeting, largest turnout ever at a blazer meeting, the final vote came in at 151 in favor 43 against, now it has to be approved by the league which could take 60 to 90 days to complete

[scamperdog]

www.kamloopsthisweek.com
They played for the Kamloops Blazers during the glory years of the late 1980s and early 1990s.

On Thursday night, Jarome Iginla, Mark Recchi, Darryl Sydor and Shane Doan, along with fifth business partner Tom Gaglardi, were handed the team for $7 million.

As Blazer coaching staff put rookies to the test on the ice at Interior Savings Centre, members of the society that owns the club met a few hundres feet away in the Sports Action Lounge, where an overhwelming majority (151 out of 194 who attended) voted to sell the club to the River City quintet.

The 2.5-hour meeting was rife with impassioned speeches from the NHLers, from society board members and from society members, with arguments for and against selling the club to River City.

In the end, the society voted to place the team in private hands for the first time since 1984, when community members purchased the Blazers from then-owner Peter Pocklington, who was planning on moving the club to the Prariries.

Full details of River City's purchase, along with comments from those involved, will appear in Sunday's edition of Kamloops This Week.

[scamperdog]

http://gdrinnan.blogspot.com/

From The Daily News of Friday, Aug. 24, 2007 . . .

The Kamloops Blazers Sports Society’s membership voted 151-43 Thursday night to sell its WHL franchise to River City Hockey Inc. (RCH), a group that is led by Vancouver businessman Tom Gaglardi and includes ex-Blazers players Shane Doan, Jarome Iginla, Mark Recchi and Darryl Sydor.
The purchase price will be around $7 million, the highest price — by $3 million — ever paid for a WHL franchise and the second-highest price ever paid for a major junior team. The OHL’s Mississauga IceDogs sold for a reported $9.2 million last summer.
There were 194 of 256 eligible members at the extraordinary general meeting in the Sports Action Lounge at the Interior Savings Centre.
The meeting, which began at 7 o’clock, ended about 9:30.
The society’s nine-man board of directors was forced into calling the meeting when RCH and its supporters, using a clause in the B.C. Society Act, were able to get a requisition asking for a vote on its offer.
The vote, which was done by a show of hands, was resounding, something that meant a lot to the RCH group.
“It hasn’t sunk in,” said Sydor, before jetting back to Dallas where he is a member of Stars’ centre Mike Modano’s wedding party. “But it’s been a long time coming. The membership has spoken.
“It was resounding and that makes us feel better. It makes us proud.”
Gaglardi added: “Wow! That’s quite something.”
Emotions and passion ran high throughout a lot of the meeting that featured 19 different speakers, including all five members of RCH as well as society board members Dennis Coates and Don Moores.
“The time has come to choose a private model,” said Coates, who is the society’s treasurer. “My personal opinion is . . . that the time has come to privatize the enterprise. Quite frankly . . . I disagree with price being the driving force. I think it’s a combination of price and hockey commitment.”
Moores, who spoke emotionally on July 11, 2006, when members voted that the assets weren’t for sale, favoured selling, too, but not without going to the market place.
“I’m not naive enough to not take a look at all this and see that we have a membership that is fractured. There’s no question that’s what has happened. So in my mind it’s inevitable that this hockey club is going to sell.
“The four guys that are wanting to buy the hockey club . . . this has nothing to do with them. . . . My issue with what is going on is the process. As a society, there is a process that is laid out. And we should be putting this hockey club on the open market only because it’s the right thing to do.”
The members, however, felt otherwise, despite claims of a hostile takeover by one of them.
“We love you guys,” Helen Long said, “but what you are attempting here is a hostile takeover. If we decide to sell, it should be on our terms and open to all offers.”
Other speakers, like former Blazers marketing director Don Larsen and Ross Cundari, felt otherwise.
“I have no problem turning the team over to these guys,” Larsen said.
“This is a dream team for any hockey fan,” Cundari said of the RCH group. “This is an opportunity that we shouldn’t delay any further.”
Andy Clovechok, a former board member who served the society for a long time, also sided with RCH.
“Now is the time to sell,” he told the crowd, “not two years down the line. What are we waiting for? Let’s go.”
Society president Murray Owen had said Tuesday that the board wouldn’t sign off on the offer that was in front of it at that time. RCH presented an amended offer Wednesday, one that takes liability for the education fund among other things. Owen told the members during the meeting that the board would sign off on the amended offer should the vote go that way.
The society board was to meet late last night and Owen said the WHL has a process that will be followed involving a transfer of ownership.
Should the WHL approve the sale, a process that WHL commissioner Ron Robison has said could take at least 90 days, Gaglardi will be the franchise’s governor, a role presently filled by Owen.
RCH first attempted to purchase the Blazers for $6 million on June 27, 2006. That offer never was presented to the society’s membership. In fact, at a meeting on July 11, 2006, the members voted that the society’s assets weren’t for sale. RCH returned July 18 with an offer of $6.1 million. RCH amended that offer Wednesday and it now is valued at around $7 million.
A group of shareholders purchased 33 per cent of the franchise from the NHL’s Edmonton Oilers in the summer of 1981. The remaining 67 per cent was purchased from the Oilers over the summer of 1984 when the team name of Junior Oilers was changed to Blazers.
Later, a non-profit society was formed and its board of directors has, under the terms of the Society Act, continued to operate the franchise.
That all ended officially last night.
“I’m very happy,” Larsen said. “As soon as the motion was passed, I became a Blazer again. I know it sounds corny but I had shivers.”
The situation in Kamloops has had an impact elsewhere, too.
Ron Toigo, the majority owner of the Vancouver Giants, signed head coach Don Hay, a former Blazers coach and a Kamloops native, to a five-year contract yesterday. Toigo later admitted that the uncertain situation here and not knowing what new ownership might mean in terms of the coaching staff contributed to his decision.
"Everybody would want him," Toigo told The Province. "But I think he likes living here. I think he likes the atmosphere with the team. I think he likes the support from the community."

[scamperdog]

From The Daily News of Saturday, Aug. 25, 2007 . . .
http://gdrinnan.blogspot.com/
Jarome Iginla looked exhausted, like he had just gone seven games with the
Edmonton Oilers.
It was late Thursday night, moments after the Kamloops Blazers Sports
Society membership had voted resoundingly (151-43) to sell its WHL franchise
to River City Hockey Inc. (RCH), a group that includes Iginla.
“It was pretty intense,” Iginla, the Calgary Flames’ captain, said as he
displayed that trademark smile. “It really does (weaken the knees). There’s
so many emotions but that’s the way it should be.
“That shows what a great hockey city Kamloops is, what a great junior hockey
city Kamloops is.”
Iginla was the final member of the ownership group to speak, as he, Darryl
Sydor and Shane Doan got up late in the proceedings.
Mark Recchi had led off the meeting some two hours earlier. It was Recchi’s
job to hammer home the point that RCH felt it had been shown a lack of
respect over the previous 14 months, since it first attempted to purchase
the club last summer.
Recchi was especially critical of the society’s board of directors for not
meeting with RCH earlier than it had.
“They refused to meet with us,” Recchi said. “They refused to put the offer
to the membership. They refused to allow us to appear at the members’
meeting. The reason was that we were not members at the time.
“They went ahead and called a members’ meeting without proper legal notice.
They only gave 11 days (notice) instead of 14. The summary of our offer
which was laid out for the members at the meeting was concealed from the
members. As those of you know who were at the meeting (of July 11, 2006)
basically the meeting got overwhelmed.”
Had things been handled differently, Recchi said, what ended in Thursday’s
decision may not have transpired.
“We probably wouldn’t be here if we felt the agenda was run properly last
year,” he said. “We would probably have walked away if things had been
addressed a little bit better last year.”
It remained late in the meeting, then, for the other three ex-Blazers to do
their bit.
All three reminisced about how much it meant to them to have played in
Kamloops and the role the city and its citizens played in shaping them as
responsible adults.
“Coming here at the age of 16 and under the guidance of Bob Brown and (Ken)
Hitchcock . . . these are the years when I really learned what it takes to
be a man,” Sydor said.
When it was Doan’s turn, he offered: “I’ve moved here . . . this is my home
now. My wife’s family lives here . . . Kamloops is a huge part of my life.”
Doan made reference to a truck on the outskirts of Kamloops that sports a
sign that reads This is Blazer Country.
“That’s the Blazer pride,” Doan said, his voice rising. “That’s why we’re
involved. That’s why we want to buy the team . . . that’s what we want. We
want that to be able to pass it on. . . . We just want an opportunity.
“Our offer is just an offer. It’s not a power play. It’s not a hostile
takeover. We’re members just like you now. We have the right to vote. We’re
not trying to be hostile. . . . we’re not trying to do anything that is
sleight of hand. . . . We’re not trying to steal anything away.”
Doan also made a promise.
“We have no plans of raising ticket prices,” he said. “No way. There’s no
plans of that. It says that on our website. This is not so much about profit
as it is about pride; this is about pride for us.”
Iginla drew a rousing ovation when he opened by pointing out that the four
ex-Blazers have “won five Memorial Cups, three world junior championships,
five world championships, an Olympic gold medal and four Stanley Cups.”
He added: “We came in here as young men and we looked for guidance. . . . In
our era, when we played here we had it. The best coaching . . . we had the
best billets, we had the best management. It was always about helping us . .
. developing a work ethic and being appreciative of our opportunities.”
Iginla, who wasn’t part of RCH last summer, admitted to enjoying the outcome
a lot more than the process.
“Through the whole process it’s been hard for us because it’s such a
passionate issue and we know it’s very important to all of you,” he told the
crowd. “As eveyrone has said, it’s very important to us, too. We want to
have an impact. You guys had a huge impact on us.”
When it was all over and the impact of what had happened was beginning to
set in, Iginla said it felt “pretty overwhleming.”
“It’s a huge honour,” he said. “To see the support and the passion. I’ve
never been to a meeting like this . . . a townhall meeting. There was a lot
of passion.”
It was, he said, what hockey in Canada is all about.
“Exactly,” he said. “It was pretty intense . . . and the support that was
shown was very special.”
Iginla also admitted that getting up and speaking in front of the members
was one of the tougher things with which he has been faced.
“You get up there and you’ve thought about what you want to say before and
you have a plan, but it goes out the window,” he said. “It’s gone.
“And it’s tough because we don’t have a lot of experience at that part.”
The post-meeting feeling, Doan said, was “definitely something like (after a
game).”
“It’s a great experience to be a part of something like that to see how it
goes and how it works,” he said.
As for the resounding victory scored by RCH, Doan said: “I think that was
really important for all of us who were involved to realize . . . we wanted
the people to realize that we are an extension of what they have taught us,
what the community has taught us, what the society and the foundation have
all taught us.”

[scamperdog]

RCH could take over in October: WHL commish
by Gregg Drinnan www.kamloopsnews.ca

River City Hockey Inc. (RCH), the proposed new owner of the Kamloops Blazers, could take possession of the WHL franchise as early as Oct. 11.

That’s the day following the next scheduled WHL board of governors meeting in Calgary. Vancouver businessman Tom Gaglardi, the majority partner in RCH, is expected to appear before the governors at that meeting.

After 23 years of ownership, the Kamloops Blazers Sports Society’s membership voted Thursday night to sell its WHL franchise to Gaglardi and partners Shane Doan, Jarome Iginla, Mark Recchi and Darryl Sydor.

The process that leads to the transfer of ownership has started.

“We have a due diligence process that we go through in all of these cases,” WHL commissioner Ron Robison said Monday from the WHL’s Calgary office. “Any time there is a sale that occurs . . . as soon as we get the formal documents from the club — the purchase and sale agreement — then we commence with the steps in the due diligence process.

“That largely involves the submission of a comprehensive business plan to see how the club will operate for the next five years. That’s what we will be looking for.”

Robison said he expects Gaglardi to make an “in-person presentation” to the board of governors at that Oct. 10 meeting.

“Obviously, this group comes with a lot of credibility in a lot of areas,” Robison said. “But we need to see their plan and to evaluate it. There is a series of documents they have to submit, but the business plan is done on an in-person basis.” Robinson said that the whole package will hinge on that business plan.

“The key concern,” he reiterated, “for us in this whole process will be to ensure that we have a new ownership group that will not only continue to operate based on the tradition of the Blazers but, more importantly from our standpoint, be in sync with the type of operating philosophies we have traditionally had.”

Before all is said and done, RCH also will have to enter into an ownership agreement with the WHL.

“It provides us with the assurances that they will comply with the bylaws and various standards of the league,” Robison explained.

The last private sale of a WHL franchise involved the Portland Winter Hawks. In that instance, Robison said, the transfer of ownership took “probably close to six months.”

The commissioner doesn’t anticipate that happening with the Blazers.

If all goes well with the submission of a business plan and the execution of the transfer of ownership agreement, Robison said he could “be in position to present a recommendation for approval” to the board of governors on Oct. 10.

And, Robison said, “Once the league approves it, it becomes effective.”

“(RCH) would not be in a position to formally start operations until after the board of governors’ approval,” Robison said. “The earliest would be Oct. 11.”

In the meantime, it will be business as usual with the Blazers.

“The staff in place will continue to operate the franchise,” Robison said, “and the board (of directors) will continue to oversee the operation until the formal transition takes place upon the approval of the governors.”

• • •

Mike Priestner, owner of the Edmonton-based Mike Priestner Automotive Group, also made an offer on the Blazers. He proposed to buy 51 per cent of the franchise, leaving 49 per cent in the hands of society members.

His proposal, which valued the franchise at $7,110,000, was never given any consideration by members.

Asked Monday how he felt about the way things went down, Priestner said: “No comment.”