Robison Talks ( a bit ) About Portland

[Scout]

Gregg Drinnan

Wednesday, May 21, 2008

Robison talks (a bit) about Portland

After a long, meeting-filled day at the Memorial Cup in Kitchener, WHL commissioner Ron Robison picked his words rather carefully when he was asked for an update on the situation in which the Portland Winter Hawks’ franchise finds itself.
The embattled Winter Hawks, who are coming off a season in which they had the WHL’s poorest record, have had something of a messy offseason. Of late, the accounting firm KPMG was contracted by the WHL to conduct an audit of the team’s finances and, earlier this week, former head coach Mike Williamson filed suit against the team, alleging breach of contract.
Last night, Robison would only admit that things are “at a very sensitive stage” and that “our focus is on one thing — to keep the franchise in Portland under the ownership that we expect.”
After all, Robison added, Portland “could have the strongest fan-base of any hockey market in the U.S.”
Asked about the status of the audit, which KPMG began last month in the Winter Hawks’ office, Robison said it is “near completion.”
He added: “We expect to have that wrapped up very soon and we’ll be making an announcement, I would say, within the next week on the entire matter.”
Robison is well aware that only three months remain before his league’s 22 teams open training camps and the tone of the his voice left little doubt but that there won’t be an announcement regarding the Winter Hawks until everything is able to be cleared up.
As for the lawsuit filed earlier this week by Williamson, Robison said: “I can’t really comment because we’re not party to it. So . . . really no comment.”
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While he wouldn’t admit it, you can bet that the mess in Portland has put something of a damper on what otherwise would have been a glorious week for Ron Robison. After all, he’s the WHL commissioner and his league’s representative in the Memorial Cup — the Spokane Chiefs — is 3-0 and will appear in Sunday’s final.
“It’s been a real good week with the way Spokane has played,” he said. “They just kept rolling and have gotten better and better since that Tri-City series.
“They’re playing with a lot of confidence and have real good leadership. Inside the room, they seem to be so strong overall. (Head coach) Bill Peters has done a heckuva job.”
If the Chiefs win Sunday to finish off a perfect week, you can bet that Robison will be wearing a big smile, at least for a while.

[Joe Hallenback]

one side of me hopes Portland gets its act together because it has a long and proud hockey tradition in the WHL

the other side would love to see them move to Winnipeg!!!! Ya thats pretty evil of me but I would get to go and watch every night

[Arthur Fonzerelli]

History won't pay the bills, it's the same story everywhere, "What have you done lately?" They are going after Moose Jaw because they have an old arena, but at least they fill it and can pay their own way. If Portland fans can't show they want a team then move them. Winnipeg deserves a team, they will be a high end franchise. punk rock

[wardog fan]

i like to reflect on the comments about the jaw. no excuses here so dont go and think im looking for any . my point is a community owned team such like ours are in much dire need for all the support we can get. swift , and pa, and us are the only comunity owned teams in the league. that means the fans and local support keep these teams running not a group of owners with deep pockets. attendence is key in success with these franchises and being in virtually small markets compared to the rest of the league is touch. i cant speak for every fan in these markets, i know swifty draws 2000 a game pa, not sure and moose jaw is usually above those two teams in attendence. i think the league laying the smack down on moose jaw is almost like david vs galieth , their trying to make a point with moose jaw. well for one we have no corporate help anything big in our area such as kalium or saskferco gose to the riders and pats, thus mosiac stadium and such like that again not making excuses here. but you would think the league would be somewhat understanding here the moose jaw hockey club has never gotten into money trouble and have been a established franchise for 20 plus years. doesnt that have enough grounds to give us some what of a break? what goes on in city council is out of everyones shoes, theres more fighting going on and so forth that basically every citizen in moose jaw doesnt even want to talk rink anymore. its not the fans fault here we voted for a new rink... i can honestly say that if we lose this franchise its going to get ugly in moose jaw and will even go to the courts and so forth theres alot of players invovled with interests in this new rink and its not fair that our city council some of them are in this for themselves. thus profitting from building in the most expensive spot such as downtown. the whl has create a monster look at attendences out west its astounshing really but thats where this league has gone. vancouver, calgary, edmonton huge markets, the american teams draw well , and so forth. the league is a half been or a half not state and its not fair, what happen to a league parity, not only on the ice but with the franchises themselves? maybe im smoking crack but look at the attence and key player signings out of the ncaa and such, kids are picking where they want to play based on perks. but for moose jaw i think the league has been firm about things and the debate in moose jaw over location has gone on for awhile now , but my question is , is it fair to make a example of a franchise of over 20 years who is a community owned team and does everything in its power to make the league happy. not to mention is center of a very great province with teams like swift, regina, saskatoon , and even brandon all needing us to stay in the league to cut down on travel costs, and bring in fans when these teams play? our league commish reminds me of bettman and that cant be too good if your a whl small market fan.....

[dondo]

^ in the end wardog, its the numbers of butts in seats which pay the bills in this league and I think the dub is going to pressure all the teams to look at having arenas with at least a 5000 seat capacity (The Chilliwack Bruins built their building to that capacity and I think they probably would have liked to have about 1000 more already, but that seems to me to be the average around the league) .

You have to admit that the crushed can probably needs to be replaced and that the new facility could allow more Moose Jaw folks to see the team play AND get a multi-use facility the whole city can benefit from, which is a worthwhile investment in my mind..

Now being way up here in my clouds I suppose I don't fully understand the ramifications as they stand right now and if your example of Swift Current drawing about 2000 fans to their game while having the ability to seat more, or that their capacity is around the same as the Moose Jaw Arena.

I also don't believe the league discriminates against the smaller franchises and in fact tries to keep their costs to a minimum. Especially during the playoffs, I'm sure there's a lot of teams who would rather fly, but the league will not allow it as there are teams which are unable to compete on that level. Also the billet system and grass roots financing is another way the league helps the smaller franchises.

That's about as far from Bettman as you can get .. its just the ripple effect from the NHL which is seriously threatening to ruin the grassroots game, but the dub brain-trust are doing their level-best to keep parity in the league and as far as what is going on on the ice-- they do that very well. The dub has far more parity than the O or Q have.

[wardog fan]

so why would the league have a league wide mandate to have arenas over 5,000 capcity? the quebec league has older rinks and hold smaller then moose jaw and they attendence parity is around 2,000 per game with excemption of halifax and quebec city? ontario is the same thing with only 3 teams over 5,000? i disagree with the mandate of having a rink that holds 5,000 plus lets rememeber this is only junior hockey not ahl or semi pro hockey just because the league goes into big markets such as vancouver and calgary and edmonton who let me remind you that these cities 10 years ago couldnt care less if they had junior hockey now its like boom and the teams who survived for 20 years are going to be hurt by it. i can tell you right now moose jaw will never boost 4,000 plus attendence , nor swift in that fact but hey i could be wrong but the bottom line is to say this league is going to demand the size of rinks and such is retarded. lets rememeber this is the grassroots of hockey and we are here to develop, not make some rich owners more richer... kinda sounds like pro hockey if you ask me.. the q does just fine and their franchises boost 2,000- 2,500 a game and with older rinks then the crushed can.... ya theres parity all right but lets forget for a second all the perks some of the bigger markets have over the smaller markets ,and flying or their own buses and such. throw that in a teen and he will choose the perks over a hockey team . and lets give portland fans credit, their record last season was horrible but according to the attendence stats they still drew well over 4,000 a game that in its self should be enough to say that portland loves its hockey...

[Scout]

Since the rink reno's were completed in January, Bronco attendance has increased from 2,000 per game to over 2,800 per game with the expanded seating. I realize that we had an entertaining team and the reno's were not the only factor but it did have an impact. We have had good teams in the past and only averaged 2,200 per game, so yes i have to say our reno's did help increase attendance. It's brighter,cleaner and was made roomier and the atmosphere is alot different. The fans actually are into the games and making noise. I'm glad the league tightened the noose on our team and that our council acted quick. Being like Moose Jaw and Prince Albert on being community owned, getting an extra 600 butts in the seats will help with our bottom line. If the league hadn't given us a renovate or else ultimatum we would still be in the old rink averaging 2,000 per game.

Scout

[Toswammi]

Yeah the reason our average attendance is so low is half the year our building was still under construction and a sell out was like 1900 or so.
But without the pressure put on us we would still have the sub par building. In a weird way we gotta thank the league for doing what it did. Our rink is alive again (at least for now) and that alone is a big deal in Swift.

[dondo]

not sure that the league is going to demand that particular size -- it was just an example. Sure the bigger markets get more perks, but I suppose that's comes from being in a market where there are more revenue streams, but at its heart the teams (big and small) depend upon the number of seats to keep their franchises viable.

I was not intending to dis you or attack you wardog_fan, but I'm sure you can understand why the league would be pushing toward upgrading facilities. I'm not sure if Moose Jaw is a specific target right now or that a lot of the teams are being encouraged to update their facilities and increase capacity. In Swift it sounds like a face-lift managed to boost their support a bit. Some great deadline deals didn't hurt either though.

In Portland's case though its more a matter of some serious mis-management and imo that includes behind the bench. The Winterhawks were a very badly coached team this year, now a lot of that could have come from the mismanagement behind the scenes and lack of motivation to put their all into a franchise whose brain trust were actively disrespecting their staff and players and not paying their bills from their suppliers.

[wardog fan]

no dondo i knew you werent making anything personal or what have you but as a loyal fan and let me tell ya im frustrated as heck with lack of developments here in the jaw with regards to anything to save our team. what happen with swifty , its diffrent newer rink i do believe then the can and they acted right away which is a good thing, but in the long run is it? how long till robison asks for more? the jaw knows we need a new rink , thats what us the people voted for in a landslide. but the debate is who is going to profit from it, the push is to build downtown, that push is being made by people who have deep pockets and own all the land downtown. but as a average citizen we dont want our tax dollers going to people who want to spend upwards of 20 million dollers on building a rink downtown so they can get richer of property value.. we have ton of land that this rink could of been built on , in fact this rink could have been built by now and everything would have been forgotten and our kids would have a future nice rink , curling rink and indoor soccer fields, like many other kids their age in smaller or bigger markets. the bottom line i have is the league is taking this step to push the city , which is fine by me cause i and among others are completely sick of the whole mess to be honest and in the short run are going to be robbed our team by stupid deep pocketed people... where do you draw the line? thats all i ask ? we dont have a owner to step in and say hey this is the way it is , we have a board, we live and surivive on fan support. alot of peoples excuses why they dont go to the games is the rink itself, well if thats the case i hope like what happened in swifty the crowds do come out if and when this rink goes up. but really im mad about people who have power such as our coucil our multiplex steering committee and the league are going to rob this city of our franshise and its not fair . because the league needs 4-5 thousand people in the seats for what reasons i still dont know, last i looked if a team can pay their bills who cares right, we have done that with a board not a owner.....