The Thunder will not be a part of the SIJHL next season.
That is Thunder GM Brent Tookenay’s sentiment after being asked if the team will remain with the Superior International Junior Hockey League if it cannot join the Manitoba Junior Hockey League.
“Let’s put it this way—we won’t be in the SIJHL next year. No matter what,” Tookenay vowed.
He admitted the Borderland Thunder has been quietly seeking membership in the MJHL for the past two years. And for the past year, the team has made its intentions widely and clearly known—they want out.
But the Thunder needed permission from the SIJHL to join the MJHL. That request was predictably denied, so the Thunder then took the next step and made their proposal to Hockey Northwestern Ontario.
As first reported in last Thursday’s Daily Bulletin, the 12-man HNO board, which met Jan. 29, also nixed the request.
“This could lead to the demise of the league, so for the health of the league, I don’t think anyone was about to vote that they [the Thunder] should leave,” SIJHL vice-president Ron Whitehead said of the league’s vote held earlier last month.
“I know it helps them, but it doesn’t help us, so they were not about to get a ‘yes’ vote and I’m sure they knew that,” Whitehead added.
One franchise that did say “yes” was the Dryden Ice Dogs, who also are seeking membership into the MJHL and essentially are joined at the hip with the Thunder.
If the two were to jump ship, that would leave only the three Thunder Bay-based teams in the SIJHL.
Hockey Canada stipulates a three-team league can exist.
“As far as I know, we’re fully intending on playing next year with or without Fort Frances or Dryden, but I would much rather have them than not,” said Whitehead.
So why does the Thunder want out of the SIJHL?
Tookenay said the MJHL has more teams (11 in two divisions) compared to the five-team SIJHL, which would give fans more variety and, hence, put more bottoms in the seats.
The SIJHL has seen anemic attendance across the board this season.
“It’s also a matter of security,” said Tookenay. “I don’t know how stable the SIJHL is right now.
“The SIJHL is a good league, but they haven’t approached it the right way and they haven’t planned for the future of the league whereas other leagues in Canada do that,” he charged.
The MJHL is Canada’ longest-running junior hockey league with 87 years of play. The SIJHL—and the Thunder—came into being in 2001.
“I don’t blame the people in Fort Frances and the district at all. Our attendance has dropped because you’re seeing the same show all the time,” reasoned Tookenay.
But if the Thunder and/or the Ice Dogs were able to leave the SIJHL, would they be adopted by the MJHL?
“Under the terms that we laid out for them, if they received the approval, then we will certainly take a look at their applications, but at this point I don’t know what the status is,” noted MJHL commissioner Kim Davis.
Does anyone? The Thunder and Ice Dogs are looking to be a part of the MJHL for the 2005-06 season, but unlike the Rolling Stones, time is not on their side as the MJHL will set next season’s schedule by early June.
“We’ve put in a lot of hours to get this thing going and to have it go down the tubes because we can’t get permission to go to the MJHL? Well, that isn’t going to happen,” Tookenay stressed.
So it may be off to the courts for a legal battle that has no definite outcome—along with no definite timetable. But Tookenay is confident that if it does go that far, the Thunder will be get the decision they desire.
“We’re still working at it and we’re very optimistic about being able to do this,” he said.
But Whitehead contended the Thunder will be no better off in the 11-team MJHL than they are now with the SIJHL, citing travel times and costs as well as the fees needed to get a team up and running.
For a new team to join the MJHL, a $5,000 application fee must first be given. If it’s accepted, then a $150,000 franchise fee must be received, and then anywhere from $250,000-$300,000 is needed to run the team for a season.
That would leave the Thunder, for the first season, facing a bill of almost half-a-million dollars.
“When you figure out the initiation fees to get into the league and the increased travel cost they are going to endure, I find it hard to believe that they will be any farther ahead by the end of the day,” said Whitehead.
And who will foot that bill if the Thunder joins the MJHL?
Whitehead said the Thunder, currently owned by Couchiching First Nation, has a new group of owners ready with their cheque books—but that hinges solely on if the Thunder join the MJHL.
“[Tookenay] told us at the [SIJHL rep] meeting that their new ownership group was all or nothing, and I had offered to meet with the ownership group to see if we could come to some kind of compromise,” said Whitehead.
But the time for compromise has long passed, said Tookenay, who looks at the SIJHL’s lackluster efforts in trying to expand the league as a key reason why the Thunder want out.
“The talent in the league has gotten better, but in terms of the overall progression of the league, I don’t think it has at all,” argued Tookenay. “We want to see this team stay here [Fort Frances] and we feel the only way we can do that is through the MJHL.”
The Iron Range Yellow Jackets and the Northwest Wisconsin Knights were part of the SIJHL in the early years, but even though they played only half the season, the rink was always filled with anxious fans.
Those teams left to never return, and Tookenay said there has been little progress made by the league to try and get them back—or any other teams to join.
“When we lost those teams, the league didn’t do anything about looking into the future,” he charged. “Maybe they made a phone call or two, but that was it.
“If those two teams were still in the league, I doubt that we’d be having this conversation,” Tookenay added.
But Whitehead countered that the Thunder have not been the most supportive in trying to expand the SIJHL, either.
“When it was mentioned at the general meeting that we were talking to Kenora, the representatives from Fort Frances was the first to stand up and said, ‘Oh my God, not in Kenora, that’s where we get a lot of our players.’
“So it was the old not in my backyard—‘Let’s expand, but not anywhere we’re at,’” explained Whitehead, who did admit the SIJHL has been behind in the expansion department.
“We are probably behind in getting that done,” he remarked.
Whitehead also noted the media attention that has been given to some of the SIJHL’s problems, like dwindling attendance and the Thunder and Dryden wanting to leave, has caused difficulties when approaching potential investors.
“It is making it almost impossible to talk to anyone to put up the kind of dollars needed to expand,” he argued.
“We don’t want to be known as the people that killed the league, but what choice do we have?” asked Tookenay. “If I was a billionaire, we would not be talking about this.
“We’re not bullying the league and neither is Dryden,” he stressed. “We’re just trying to keep our franchises afloat and the only way to do that is to head west.”
Fort Frances Times
Local News from Across the Rainy River District
