The Brampton Battalion’s move to North Bay for the 2013-14 Ontario
Hockey League season won’t mean added travel just for the team’s players,
coaches and support staff.
It also will mean a lot more miles on the road for owner
Scott Abbott, who has missed only five regular-season and playoff games over 15
seasons. Abbott, who has commuted from his Caledon home to Battalion road games
and home dates at the Powerade Centre, plans to do the same when the club
relocates to Northern Ontario.
“There’ll be more travel to home games, but travel to away
games will be largely the same,” said Abbott, who hasn’t missed a Battalion
game since a Nov. 21, 2003, road date against the Sudbury Wolves. “I take great
pride in the team, and I want to see them play. I’ve been asked numerous times
on trips to North Bay whether I’m moving there, and I tell them I’ll commute
and see how it goes. We’ll see how the schedule plays out and go from there.”
Since the Battalion announced Nov. 5 that it planned to move,
more than 2,300 season tickets have been sold. The city’s previous OHL team,
the North Bay Centennials, moved to Michigan after the 2001-02 season, becoming
the Saginaw Spirit.
“I’m very appreciative of the overwhelming support in North
Bay,” said Abbott. “I won’t say I’m surprised
by it, but I am buoyed and encouraged by it. When the Centennials were ready to
leave in 2002, the real issue was not to find so many people to pledge to buy
season tickets. The real issue was to find someone who would match the offer from
Saginaw to buy the team and keep it in North Bay. The fans didn’t want to lose
the team, and they’ve been pained over the loss ever since. I think there’s
pent-up demand there for OHL hockey.
“I look forward to a situation there where the team is supported
by a large, loud, raucous, hockey-focused crowd that gives us a home-ice
advantage probably for the first time ever. “
The Battalion will join Sudbury, a Central Division rival,
and the Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds as Northern Ontario clubs. Abbott said he
doesn’t expect the Troops to have difficulty convincing players from southern
Ontario to report.
“It’s conventional wisdom in the OHL that teams like Sudbury
and Sault Ste. Marie have trouble getting those players. We’ve asked ourselves
whether that’ll be the case. North Bay is the closest of the three Northern
Ontario centres travel-wise.
“We’ve ascertained that the important thing for players is
development, schooling and the amenities to which they have access. Development
is looked after with head coach Stan Butler and his staff. The schooling, whether
public, Catholic or French-language, is very well situated close to Memorial
Gardens, and we’ll have a dressing room and other amenities superior to
anything in the Powerade Centre. “
Abbott said he accepts the increased scrutiny that will
accompany a move to a market such as North Bay.
“We’ll do the best job we can to give the fans the best possible
team year in and year out. If they’re demanding, so be it. I come from Montreal,
where it’s a bad season if the Canadiens don’t win the Stanley Cup. We know
about expectations.
“We’re going to take a good team to North Bay. We have a lot
of kids on this team getting quality minutes, and that will serve us in good
stead next year.”
Abbott said the organization embarked on an aggressive
marketing campaign in advance of its inaugural season in 1998-99. The Battalion
drew a large, but not sellout, crowd to its first home game, a 5-1 loss to the
Kitchener Rangers, and averaged 2,417 fans over its first campaign.
“We had good press, and we spent money advertising. We had a
crowd of 4,477 for our first home opener, and it went precipitously downhill
after that. I found out four or five games later that we were giving away free
tickets and said that had to stop, and that never happened again. That
opening-night crowd was an aberration and was largely papered, as I found out.
We realized early on that this was a tougher slog than it should have been.”
Average attendance peaked in 2005-06 at 2,734. The club
averaged 1,986 fans last year and has attracted somewhat fewer than 2,100
spectators a game this season.
“It’s a very difficult market. We’re under the dome of domination
by the Toronto media. Toronto newspapers and radio and television stations
don’t pay any attention to junior hockey. They don’t care, so there’s no market
penetration, and that’s exacerbated in Brampton and Mississauga because there’s
no daily newspaper. There’s no awareness despite all we’ve done in the way of
advertising, promotions and appearances.
“The demographics here took a decidedly adverse turn almost
simultaneously with us coming on board in 1998. All of the growth in population,
which is substantial, is new Canadian, and that group is not ready to embrace
hockey in any great numbers.
“Mississauga has all the same problems we have. I maintain
you need to get outside the Toronto area to where there are local media that
will treat you as the big thing in town. Then you can have a fighting chance.”
Abbott, who said the decision to move wasn’t easy, acknowledged that it was long under consideration.
“We had a 15-year lease, and I knew about halfway through
that we would not be signing another one under anything near the same terms.
Then it became apparent that we could get the building for nothing, including
the dressing rooms and office space, and it still wouldn’t make sense because
there isn’t interest in our level of hockey in this community. Those are the
facts.”
Abbott was skeptical of a plan to put a Central Hockey
League franchise in the Powerade Centre in the wake of the Battalion’s
departure.
“I don’t think there are 25 people within 25 miles of the
arena who would walk across the street to watch a CHL game. Good luck to them.”
Abbott said he appreciated the loyalty and spirit of the
Battalion’s ardent fans.
“I love the fans in Brampton to the extent we have them. We
had a hardcore group as good as any in the OHL. I thank them for the manner in
which they’ve accepted the fact we’re leaving. It could have been nasty, asking
us why we’re bolting and abandoning them. I’m sure they don’t want us to go,
but they understand why we’re leaving and they’ve been very gracious about it.
I appreciate that. It’s not like I was always looking to leave. I wish Brampton
had been a roaring success on and off the ice, but that wasn’t in the cards.”
