Cougars Sale Approved
Prince George, B.c. – The WHL Board of Governors has approved the sale of the Prince George Cougars .
The WHL Board of Governors voted unanimously to approve the transfer of the Prince George Cougars ownership from Rick Brodsky to EDGEPRO Sports and Entertainment Ltd..The new Prince George ownership group is led by local businessman Greg Pocock along with partners Ernest Ouellet, Raymond Fortier, and John Pateman. Former Prince George Cougars and current NHL players Dan Hamhuis and Eric Brewer are also key members of the new ownership entity.
“Today is a dream come true for our ownership group" says Greg Pocock "We are all very excited to begin a new era of WHL hockey in Prince George with citizens of the entire region. We are confident that our business plan, our local ownership group and the management team we are assembling will produce success on the ice, and excitement in the stands and in the community”.
Pocock adds “Dan Hamhuis and Eric Brewer bring a professional hockey credibility to our team. Dan and Eric are both Northern B.C. boys, and their wives are from Prince George. Things are different in the North. We understand how things need to be done in the North and have a proven track record of success in our various businesses. We are looking forward to rolling up our sleeves and getting to work right away”.
The Prince George Cougars franchise relocated from Victoria twenty years ago. Rick Brodsky has been the only owner of the Cougars WHL franchise since it began operations in Prince George in 1994.
The Board also approved the sale of the Regina Pats, transfering ownership from Russ and Diane Parker to Queen City Sports and Entertainment Group Ltd. which is headed by Regina businessman Anthony Marquart in partnership with Regina businessmen Todd Lumbard, Gavin Semple, Shaun Semple, and Jason Drummond.
“The WHL is fortunate to have attracted two very high calibre ownership groups who are fully committed to whatever is necessary to take the Prince George Cougars and the Regina Pats franchises to a new level,” commented WHL Commissioner Ron Robison. “We are confident that fans will enthusiastically embrace the local ownership groups and bring long-term stability to these WHL markets.”
It’s anticipated that both sales will close prior to the end of May. Further details will be announced in the near future when the new ownership groups conduct media conferences in both Prince George and Regina.
Comments
YAHOO !
A new day has come. Our arena atmosphere will once again be the envy of the league. Can’t wait for September. This is why we kept our season seats through all the dreadful years….waiting for this and having some of the best seats in the house>
When do season tickets go on sale? I want a pair!!!
Didn’t seem all tha long ago that Ms Brodsky was adamantly screaming that the Cougars weren’t even for sale…
always knew there was a politician inside her.
Glad to see the Brodsky clan leaving… maybe now we might have a team, or not.
Ahhh, Fortier and Pateman. The new Cougars are in good hands.
To rick brodsky and extended family from all of us fans Thank you for bringing the cougars to Prince George. We have seen many players from the cougars and play against the cougars that we now can watch in the nhl. For that i thank you. I wont miss you though or your son in law who drove this franchise into the ground but i see a bright future ahead. bye bye
Can’t wait for tickets to go on sale. Anyone have any info as to when?
awesome, if Hockey Day in Canada was any indication, I can’t wait for a enthusiastic crowd. Full support here.
Well, call me cautious, but I’m waiting until it closes before I buy my season tickets. I’d be sick if the deal didn’t close and I made another donation to the Brodsky project unintentionally.
I’m jealous… truly. I’d rather chew broken glass than every pay to watch the Giants.
Cougars fan forever!
The ink is drying as we speak. My guess is 2000 new season ticket holders before the puck drops.
It will take a hell of a lot of additional season tickets to bring this franchise up to the point where it can make a dollar. Roughly 1500. At least with the increase in ticket sales, taxpayers should be able to stop subsidizing this franchise.
Hopefully the team will become a winner, because if they continue to lose then attendance will continue to be low.
Next couple of years will tell the story. Are the fans really out there, or have they gone on to bigger and better things??
Hopefully they are interested in formimg a great relationship with the Spruce Kings. Would be a great for both organizations.
Great news, and a strong group of local owners with deep pockets. these guys won’t skimp, and they won’t treat their players like commodoties like the Brodskys have.
Mark my words, within 5 years this franchise will be the envy of the WHL.
I’ll be one of the first in line to buy season tickets for the first time in 8 years!
bcracer: “Didn’t seem all tha long ago that Ms Brodsky was adamantly screaming that the Cougars weren’t even for sale…”
That was then, this is now. Things change.
The change is ownership has to be better than the absentee owner we had.
Hopefully the fans have patience. Things won’t turn around overnight.
2 season’s tickets secured! Yahoo!
Palopu. I will say that the season ticket holders will well exceed 2500 and walk up will be a thousand plus.
mythoughts and tiredofthebullshit….you can get your season tickets already.
He Spoke. The general consensus over the past 10 years is that this franchise needs attendance of 3000 fans per game to break even.
So if your number are right they should be able to make a dollar.
Lets keep in mind that this team did not do very well over the past 10 years, and you cant blame it all on management. Some of the blame has to be placed at the feet of the players, who didn’t rise to the occasion, and certainly a lot of blame to the (so called) fans that abandoned the team when they needed them the most.
The next two years will be interesting to say the least. My sense is that after the **newness** of the new owners wears off, we will once again be looking at low attendance.
There will be an average of over 3500 fans for next season per game and it will only grow from there.
As long as they hire hockey people to do the hockey stuff then this is good news. Good riddance Dallas. I imagine his phone is ringing off the hook with job offers based on his stellar record.
Palopu: “Lets keep in mind that this team did not do very well over the past 10 years, and you cant blame it all on management. Some of the blame has to be placed at the feet of the players, who didn’t rise to the occasion, and certainly a lot of blame to the (so called) fans that abandoned the team when they needed them the most.”
The team’s problems go back to when they got here. Out of 20 seasons, they have either not made the playoffs or been eliminated in the first round in 16 out those 20 seasons.
The fans cannot be blamed for not supporting a constantly losing franchise with bad management. Hopefully now that the team is sold, things will turn around.
Losing is always placed at the feet of the coaches first, and then the players.
Coaches get fired, and players can and do get traded, but it’s usually the coach that pays the price.
What a lot of people recognized in the earliest days of the Cougars coming to Prince George was that Brodsky had no interest in hiring sound, experienced hockey people to run the team, instead he hired family and cronies. When your organization can’t or won’t put the best possible team together, the team doesn’t really have a realistic chance of competing in the WHL.
Therefore the fact that so many fans got fed up and walked away from the Cougars was our way of making Mr. Brodsky fire himself and his son in law. Finally the people responsible for 20 years of mediocrity have paid the price!
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