The loss of the St. Stephen Aces is being met with sadness from the community.
The Jr. A hockey team has been sold to a group of investors in Fredericton, and next season, will take to the ice under a new name, the Fredericton Red Wings.
St. Stephen Mayor Allan MacEachern says he and Chief Administrative Officer Jeff Renaud started working with interested parties as soon as the rumors began.
He says for the past eight weeks, the two worked daily to stop the sale and keep the team in St. Stephen, and the town was prepared to make a proposal presentation, but the opportunity was never offered.
“To put it bluntly, St. Stephen should’ve had first right to refusal. No matter how we spin this, before anyone made any deal with anyone outside of the community, it should have been dealt with here first. And that’s the only issue I have.”
With the loss of the hockey team, many residents have been speculating about the future of the Garcelon Civic Center, but MacEachern and Renaud say the Civic Center will do just fine.
Renaud says the rumours of the GCC’s demise as a result of the Aces departure are simply unfounded.
“In fact, due to the preferential treatment that was offered to the franchise, revenue generated from the Aces hockey club amounted to less than 10% of facility’s annual revenue. Our staff are already developing plans on how to mitigate this revenue loss.”
MacEachern points out the economic aspect of things, rather than the profits.
“Twenty-six events a year, and these are big events. That’s the void I want to fill. The community, businesses, the restaurants, the bars, the traffic that’s generated from these events, that’s what I’m worrying about, and we’re going to focus on that for next year.”
He says he has read some comments on social media saying the Civic Center was built for the Aces, but that’s not the case.
“The Civic Center was built for the community. It helped bring the Aces here actually. That’s what sold the fact that they could support a team. The building is there for the community. It housed the Aces. It will house something else. We’ll have something and we’ll be fine.”
We asked the Mayor if the Garcelon could attract another hockey team, “There definitely is that possibility, but then again, guess what you’re doing? You’re going to go and take a team from another town. That would bother me. If it’s a town that’s not getting the fan base and is struggling that way, then definitely we would look into that, but our problem wasn’t the fan base.”
He adds the St. Stephen Aces had one of the highest fan bases in the entire Maritime Hockey League.
Now that more ice time will be available, MacEachern says they will be putting their energy into filling that time with other events and supporting other hockey leagues.
“We’ll be looking at possible senior league hockey, we have the Original 6, and Minor Hockey. That’s going to open up some more room for them to play some more ice time in their hometown too.”
MacEachern says the loss of the team does leave a hole in the community, but the town will recover.
“It’s a piece of our growth that we just lost, and it’s a good sized piece. We don’t want to knock our momentum out by any stretch, but it’s disheartening.”
