Terriers lose on two fronts

It was a double whammie of bad news for those attending the Yorkton Terrier Hockey Club annual general meeting Monday.

The first bad news was that the team’s bid for the 2018 Royal Bank Cup had not been accepted.

Hockey Canada instead awarded the national Junior A Championship  to Chillwack, even though British Columbia hosted the event in 2014 with Vernon the host city.

“Right now the wounds are a bit raw,” admitted Terrier president Dave Baron Tuesday in an interview with Yorkton This Week, adding anytime something is rejectted, it stings.

Baron said the decision to go with Chilliwack was not made because of many things in the bid.

“It was nothing big,” he said.

“It seemed we didn’t have a guarantor. We didn’t think it was fair to put the City on the hook, or the Terrierrs on the hook.”

But the Chilliwack bid apparently had guaranteed dollars flowing to Hockey Canda.

“Reading between the lines, that was a significant factor,” said Baron, adding “… We put down what we thought we could do.”

Asked if the team would apply again next year, Baron said it was a bit early to decide that.

“But, I’m not sure what the committee wpould say if I asked them right now,” he said. “I’m not sure what we could change (in a future bid).”

The second piece of bad news the AGM revealed was that the franchise lost money for the third straight season.

This past season though was a much larger deficit at $42,000, said Baron.

“It’s the third year in-a-row. There were two smaller ones, but this one kind of kicked us in the pants,” he said.

The problem was a loss of 100-150 season tickets.

“We knew early on we were in trouble,” said Baron, who added the demographic of older season ticket holders is an issue as some move, some pass-on, and others find it increasingly difficult to get out to games in the winter.

So what to do?

“It’ll be hard,” said Baron.

Baron said he is confident the team will be better on the ice this year, after struggling as a young group at times this past season.

But it will take more than just a better record to erase a debt near $40,000/.“We need a younger demographic coming to our games,” said Baron. “… We have to reinvent ourselves.”