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Waterloo group ‘willing to compensate’ OHL’s Kitchener Rangers for waiving territorial rights
Trust a musician to have good timing. The Kitchener Ranges, one of the Ontario Hockey League's flagship franchises, are playing their exhibition opener on Friday. On the eve of it, Frank Leahy, the front man for a group which wants to bring major junior hockey to the twin city of Waterloo, is renewing public pressure to get the Rangers to drop their territorial rights. Leahy's group has the OHL rights to the Waterloo Memorial Recreation Complex, which the Rangers are using this weekend due to the renovations of Kitchener Memorial Auditorium, so you can't blame him for being opportunistic.
Please bear in mind this is all moot if the Rangers exercise their established-team prerogative to keep competition out, just like the Toronto Maple Leafs have with regard to keeping a second NHL team out of the Greater Toronto Area. It's worth highlighting Leahy's persistence.
From Jeff Hicks:
"We're willing to compensate them," Leahy said. "Over three to five years, we would compensate them."
Leahy won't say exactly how much. But he did say the amount would go a long way toward helping the Rangers retire the debt from a $10-million renovation and expansion of the Aud.
That expansion work, which will add 968 seats to the Aud, has led the Rangers to play two OHL exhibition games at the Waterloo Memorial Recreation Complex this weekend.
... Leahy's group holds exclusive rights at the 3,500-capacity Rec Complex for OHL games, granted to him by the city. Still, he allowed the Rangers to skate on a potential Waterloo team's home ice. (Waterloo Record)
The Rangers have netted a profit for 17 consecutive seasons even with an OHL team in close proximity with the Guelph Storm. The dynamics of being a publicly owned team probably increases the incentive to protect their turf. They probably need to remain to be in the black on a year-in, year-out basis because there isn't an owner who can write off the losses or have the liquid reserves to cover a shortfall.
Some of you would recall that last winter, Niagara IceDogs owner Bill Burke told the Hamilton Spectator that he "wouldn't veto" a team moving into Hamilton within his franchise's protected territory. The difference is Kitchener has been branded as a Ranger town. The St. Catharines-based IceDogs might be in a situation where a second team in close proximity would benefit them, since the OHL has struggled to keep a foothold in the Hamilton/Niagara region of Southern Ontario since the 1970s.
Waterloo, with its 19-year-old building, is at least as viable of an OHL market as former league cities Cornwall and North Bay. (And more viable than Brampton, rim shot.) The hockey community in Waterloo did show an independent streak in 2011 when the local minor hockey association shot down a proposal to merge its AAA minor hockey teams with Kitchener's and call them the K-W Rangers. If someone could tap into that groundswell and take it from emotionally invested hockey lovers to casual sports fans, sure, maybe it could work, although a Waterloo team would probably also have less desirable game times while the Rangers have the choice Friday night and Sunday afternoon dates.
The Rangers, though, have every reason to keep the question hypothetical. Does that make this a silly-season story?
Neate Sager is a writer for Yahoo! Canada Sports. Contact him at neatesager@yahoo.ca and follow him on Twitter @neatebuzzthenet.
