Ownership and management for the Prince George Cougars have spoken openly about the team’s current endeavours when it comes to providing hockey and entertainment for local fans.
During a pre-recorded virtual town hall, President John Pateman was questioned about the team’s financial situation as attendance and ticket sales have noticeably gone down in the last several years.
This was in addition to questions asked during the first of a two-part series about player development, entertainment value and the overall future of the franchise.
Pateman says COVID-19 has definitely played a factor in some recent financial hardship given the circumstances surrounding the virus.
“This time of year, typically, we’re moving forward to next season with a high-degree of certainty and we had a high-degree of uncertainty at this point,” he said.
“Certainly, at the league-level, they were looking at different options on whether or not we open late, but there’s such an unknown status of what the future holds and the financial hardship will really start if the season doesn’t start on time.”
Pateman is one of six owners of the Cougars, who’ve all experienced some financial downturn as a result of set-back seasons since the team’s 2017 B.C. Division-title year and a lack of fans coming out to games.
In fact, attendance at the CN Centre since that year has gone down 33 per cent from an average of 3,626 per game to 2,433 in the last campaign.
“It’s been a struggle financially for the ownership group over the last several years,” adds Pateman.
“We’ve obviously lost a lot of money. I would suggest, last season, we were probably 1,500 fans short of paying all our bills per game and that’s without making the playoffs. Obviously, making the playoffs and probably getting into the second round of the playoffs would hugely impact the financial side of the team and we’re looking forward to doing that in the future.”
He went on to say if the 2020-21 season starts late or, by chance, doesn’t go through, fans and season members should expect refunds.
Other topics during the first town hall were earmarked towards the on-ice product.
Prince George General Manager and Head Coach Mark Lamb was noted to have several questions directed his way about when the Cougars can get into another deep playoff run.
“Everyone wants to win a championship and you can’t just automatically put a couple players in that lineup and you’ll win a championship,” he explained.
“You know, a lot of factors come into play. But, I’m really excited about the direction of this time. We’ve got lots of good prospects and I think in the next two to three years, we can be a really good team.”
Lamb also believes the success of the 2020 WHL Bantam Draft and recent signings to the franchise proves young stars are wanting to come and play for northern B.C.’s top hockey club.
“We had tons of conversations not with just the people drafted. We had many conversations with other players [because] it’s not 100 per cent that they want to come to Prince George, but Bob Simmonds and some of the scouts that have been around have said that this was the most positive year they’ve ever had for recruiting players to Prince George.”
Vice-President of Business Andy Beesley was also on the virtual town hall taking submitted questions about the entertainment side of the Cougars.
He says while people come to watch hockey, it’s also the job of his team to provide quality entertainment off-ice for fans, such as the featured games that he says are the more popular ones.
“So whether it's a Tuesday night and it’s -30 C in the middle of February or the prime Saturday night at the end of a season, the way our business staff is trying to approach every game is that it's an individual event unto itself for every single home game. So you never know what you’re going to get here each night [...] the idea is that people expect to get a full night of entertainment. So we’re doing our very very best each night.”
Beesley also touched on ticket prices and family deals, which have notably become an important topic for people wishing to attend more games.
You can view the first of two town halls on the Prince George Cougars’ website.
The second half is set to be released tomorrow (May 8).
