Many members of the Flin Flon Bombers are honoured to play for the renowned franchise, but should that privilege come with a price tag?
At the team’s recent annual general meeting, questions surfaced around whether the SJHL might one day adopt a pay-to-play model.
A couple of years ago, two Ontario-based junior leagues, the CCHL and OJHL, moved to a system in which players dole out a fee to suit up.
In 2013-14, the standard fee in both of those leagues was $4,500 a year plus room and board, reports Sault This Week, and even higher in the GMHL, based in Ontario and Quebec.
A number of other junior leagues in Ontario and the US charge player fees not as a means to line owners’ pockets, but to survive in an era of declining attendance and infinite entertainment options.
There’s no indication pay-to-play is on its way to the SJHL any time soon, if ever, but as the league valiantly fights to keep its head above water, certainly the higher-ups have given the matter some thought.
Bombers coach and GM Mike Reagan doesn’t sound sold on pay-to-play.
Some pay-to-play Ontario teams draw fewer than 400 fans to their games, he told the team’s annual meeting, and don’t operate fundraisers.
By contrast, the Bombers still draw well over 500 or 600 fans to weekday games in the dead of winter, and even more on weekends.
The Bombers also have one of the most dedicated volunteer arms of any group in the community, with raffles and 50/50 draws perpetually in progress.
Beyond that, pay-to-play teams are not generating “as much as everybody thinks” from the fees, Reagan said.
What a hypothetical pay-to-play structure in the SJHL might look like is anybody’s guess, but if Ontario clubs can charge $4,500 plus room and board, there’s no reason to think SJ teams couldn’t do the same.
With a 23-man roster, SJHL teams could generate an extra $103,500 per season with a $4,500 fee. That’s a lot, but it’s not overwhelming considering the budget of these clubs.
Of course the league would also run the risk of losing players to free leagues, as has apparently happened to some extent in Ontario. Would the quality of the SJHL suffer, thus further eroding the fan base?
Despite such uncertainties, there is a strong case for pay-to-play in the SJHL.
The league gives players aiming for a pro career or a university scholarship, particularly those from rural communities, some incredible exposure.
Even players whose careers end with the SJHL gain valuable life experience and forge lifelong friendships. Asking them (or their parents, rather) to pay a fee, just as they did in minor hockey, does not seem wholly
unreasonable.
Pay-to-play might be a more controversial subject if exploitative, profit-seeking moguls owned SJHL teams.
That’s not the case at all. These are community-owned franchises that subsist through the dedication of volunteers – and they’re struggling.
At the Bombers’ annual meeting, Dan Reagan, who represents the team on the SJHL board of governors, said average league attendance is down 16 per cent in recent years. For the Bombers, it’s
17 per cent.
“It is very difficult for teams to keep junior hockey going, there’s absolutely no question about it,” he told the meeting. “There a lot of competition out there for the dollar.”
On the fiscal front, the Bombers turned a profit of about $20,000 in 2014-15, according to unaudited financial statements, and can finally see light at the end of the tunnel as their debt is gradually tamed.
But the club also saw revenues drop $97,000 last season, a gap bridged by a $98,500 gutting of expenses.
There is only so much more revenue the Bombers and other SJHL teams can afford to lose. There is only so much fat to trim before you’re sawing into bone.
The SJHL would be wise to closely study pay-to-play. If the numbers make sense, the system could be implemented on a trial basis before a permanent decision is made.
In a 2014 column advocating pay-to-play, Randy Russon of Sault This Week noted that junior hockey is becoming a very expensive proposition.
“And the fact of the matter is, if parents want their kids to play, they have to pay,” argued Russon.
“It’s just the way it is these days.”
He might very well be right.
