New team in Trois-Rivières, Qc in 2020

Barclay Donaldson

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There is a meeting between the MacDonald and his group with the city of TR on Tuesday. And they will have Mark Weightman with them.


nice maybe a new official echl expansion team soon

Everything indicates that will not happen soon. The city has actively delayed making any decision since fall of last year. They also have had their time-wasting tactic vindicated because of the COVID pandemic and the doubts surrounding all ticket-driven entertainment. It is too late to acquire a team for the fall, that deadline passed months ago. It is also far too early to announce a team for the start of 2021-22 season. The mayor has openly and constantly expressed his desire to bring a QMJHL team to the city rather than accepting MacDonald's ECHL bid, despite QMJHL commissioner Gilles Courteau's constant rejections. T-R and MacDonald have had meetings every few weeks for ages. Don't expect an announcement to come out of them any time soon.
 

Adam Michaels

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There is a meeting between the MacDonald and his group with the city of TR on Tuesday. And they will have Mark Weightman with them.


nice maybe a new official echl expansion team soon

Yea. I shared a few more details from an article in the post just above yours.

Weightman is definitely very interesting person to have on board. He helped Laval get going when they started three years ago. Not to mention he was also in charge of Place Bell and the arena was used for a lot of events other than just hockey like concerts and wrestling.

So I imagine he'll be able to present a plan on what they can do with the building when there is no hockey?
 

JMCx4

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Everything indicates that will not happen soon. The city has actively delayed making any decision since fall of last year. They also have had their time-wasting tactic vindicated because of the COVID pandemic and the doubts surrounding all ticket-driven entertainment. ...
So MAYBE ... the Trois-Rivières city leaders were in cahoots with the Chinese? :popcorn:
 

hurricanesfan123

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Everything indicates that will not happen soon. The city has actively delayed making any decision since fall of last year. They also have had their time-wasting tactic vindicated because of the COVID pandemic and the doubts surrounding all ticket-driven entertainment. It is too late to acquire a team for the fall, that deadline passed months ago. It is also far too early to announce a team for the start of 2021-22 season. The mayor has openly and constantly expressed his desire to bring a QMJHL team to the city rather than accepting MacDonald's ECHL bid, despite QMJHL commissioner Gilles Courteau's constant rejections. T-R and MacDonald have had meetings every few weeks for ages. Don't expect an announcement to come out of them any time soon.
the expansion decisions are made in December right?
 

CHRDANHUTCH

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the expansion decisions are made in December right?
active discussions can go on for multiple years...... it depends on the ownership and how fast those materialize look at how Newfoundland and Worcester took multiple years of discussion before the league approved their application.... same likely for dormant or former markets like Manchester if something develops there as Crelin has actively said he wants to return there should it materalize.
 

hurricanesfan123

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just so i understand
the vetting "gathering process" takes about 6 -12 months and then after that's complete the group submits a application that is voted on by the board of governors in december
 

CHRDANHUTCH

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just so i understand
the vetting "gathering process" takes about 6 -12 months and then after that's complete the group submits a application that is voted on by the board of governors in december
it could take longer Worcester if I recollect after the decision by San Jose to head west and then the time it took Cliif Rucker/Railers ownership to convince the ECHL to grant them a franchise took longer than 6-12 months......about twice that between fees as the League owns the franchise.... same thing MacDonald did with Newfoundland took about that long before things really started progressing there.... because you're also dealing in the Growlers' case the owner/operator of the arena was involved, hence the sideshow over would they've defended their championship had the pandemic not ended the season prematurely as it did.... it took Cliff an extra year to secure that franchise in Worcester based off the discussions he had pursued to return hockey there.

Maine tried that route in 2015/16 BUT it went nowhere on the independent ownership until Spectra became interested and went the other direction by acquiring through the transfer of territory the Alaska franchise
 

210

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Please stop talking about what goes on in Worcester. You never have your facts straight on that subject.

Rucker's approval was well within the 6-12 month window. He was approved by the ECHL in February of 2016 and chose to begin play in the 2017-18 season.

A quote from Cliff Rucker that appeared in the Telegram a while back...“If I wanted to drop a puck for the 2016-17 season, that would give me three or four months to hire staff and start to generate revenue. I made a determination, along with the ECHL — their best practices say you need 12 months from the time of approval until you drop a puck, and while they don’t mandate it, if I’m trying to get approval and I’m going against their best practices, that’s probably not a great idea.

“Best practices aside, I didn’t want to show up here and immediately try to start selling tickets, start selling sponsorships. I don’t want to just do this, I want to do it right. I’m in it for the long haul. So I felt I’m going to need about a year to staff up, and integrate into the community.”

Proposed ECHL expansion team signs five-year lease to play at Worcester's DCU Center starting in 2017
 

Barclay Donaldson

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so this summer manchester, trois riveries and possibly reno or Oklahoma city have to have something going by this summer or else no go for 2021?

That process is usually a long time in the making, they usually have their act together in the summer and finalize everything around Thanksgiving. Very rarely does a group decide they want hockey and they'll immediately apply. They need to have a lot of studies done on sustainability, profitability and "cover all their bases." If teams run into a road block like a bad lease or not able to get enough home dates, that's more than enough to end a bid.

Reno and Oklahoma City both aren't possibilities. An ECHL team explored Oklahoma City, but neither of the two arenas had enough profitable home dates. The NBA and NBA G League are dug into that market and both the possible arenas. Reno is not a possibility for the reasons explained here: Pro hockey coming to Reno? Don't expect it anytime soon Professional Reno Hockey Team Looks Unlikely - Arena Digest

As for other expansion cities, unless you're hearing active news about it from reliable, like you are with Trois-Rivières, then it isn't happening. Half of the ideas like Reno come from random people who just think putting a team there would be a good idea, but the city doesn't have an arena, ownership group, or anything else that goes into it.
 
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hurricanesfan123

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That process is usually a long time in the making, they usually have their act together in the summer and finalize everything around Thanksgiving. Very rarely does a group decide they want hockey and they'll immediately apply. They need to have a lot of studies done on sustainability, profitability and "cover all their bases." If teams run into a road block like a bad lease or not able to get enough home dates, that's more than enough to end a bid.

Reno and Oklahoma City both aren't possibilities. An ECHL team explored Oklahoma City, but neither of the two arenas had enough profitable home dates. The NBA and NBA G League own that market and both the possible arenas. Reno is not a possibility for the reasons explained here: Pro hockey coming to Reno? Don't expect it anytime soon Professional Reno Hockey Team Looks Unlikely - Arena Digest

As for other expansion cities, unless you're hearing active news about it from reliable, like you are with Trois-Rivières, then it isn't happening. Half of the ideas like Reno come from random people who just think putting a team there would be a good idea, but the city doesn't have an arena, ownership group, or anything else that goes into it.
this answers one of my recent posts thanks
 
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CHRDANHUTCH

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hurricanesfan:

Manchester would need an ownership..... it's unlikely the other two would come to pass..... OKC would be back where they'd been when Edmonton had their franchise there before the creation of the Pacific.... which went to Bakersfield.... that franchise temporarily was shuttled through Anaheim when they bought Norfolk outright to San Diego
 

royals119

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I believe in past cases final approval has typically come at, or after, the league meetings that coincide with the All-Star game. That's why the league likes to have everything submitted in December, so everyone can review the data prior to the January meeting and come prepared with any questions or issues.
As far as Trois-Rivers, we don't really know for sure how far they have gone with the league already. Some of the vetting can be done prior to the lease being in place, and with MacDonald already owning a team, a lot of it has likely been done. Certainly it is possible in a case like this for a preliminary application to be submitted in December, without a final lease being signed, and then final approval coming in January or February once everyone signs the lease. Not automatic by any means, and could get derailed at the last minute, just like Newfoundland was.
Other teams where there has been no actual news of any action are quite unlikely to happen between now and December/January, although a relocation could happen in a shorter time frame - especially with the uncertainty about next season.
 
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Adam Michaels

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I was just coming to post this.

The kind of news I was hoping for to come out of this meeting.

The mayor hasn't hidden the fact that he wishes to have a QMJHL team there, but the city council prefers that the arena is shared between a Canadiens ECHL affiliate and the local University team. Both the ECHL group and the University group have always maintained that they are more than willing to share the arena. However, there will need to be renovations and add dressing rooms to accommodate both teams.

I think bringing in Mark Weightman was a very smart move. Not only does he have so much experience with the Alouettes, working for them for abot twenty years. But he also helped the Laval Rocket and Place Bell become a destination spot for the locals. When Laval isn't playing at home, they had concerts, wrestling events, women's hockey, Disney on Ice.

So the city council of TR is looking at his track record and if he can do for them and their arena what he was able to do as President of Operations of Place Bell, then the local economy will see a boost.

The ECHL group a while back in one of their meetings, presented their business model and estimates to the city. They said the cost to operate the ECHL team would be about 4-million$. And the return would be about 10-million$. Not to mention it would create a lot of jobs for he community.
 

Adam Michaels

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A principal agreement has been reached between the city and the ECHL group. They have 90 days to finalize the details.

There will be a press conference today in front of Trois-Rivières City Hall by Mark Weightman and Marc-André Bergeron.

 
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