Corner Brook Royals on the verge of new life, or calling it quits
New management hopes to take over control of the troubled Corner Brook Royals senior hockey team, and has given itself a deadline of the end of August to try and make the club viable for the upcoming season.
"There's a lot of little details that have to be worked out. People ask me questions, but this is very much in its infancy," Mel Woodman, Jr. told CBC Radio'sCorner Brook Morning Show.
Woodman plans to be the new interim president of a community-based organization, still in the works, that hopes to run the Royals after former president Ross Coates and other managers stepped down at the end of the season, leaving a leadership vacuum that threatened the demise of the team.
"I've been a big supporter and fan of the Royals and I didn't see a bunch of people really stepping up to the plate, so I felt that if anything was going to happen — because I was hearing too much naysay — that now was the time to get involved," said Woodman.
Officials with the Central Western Senior Hockey League had already drafted schedules for next season based on the demise of the Royals, leaving the league with just three teams in Gander, Grand Falls-Windsor and Clarenville.
Woodman said his group, which involves the Royals Booster Club, will be trying to sort out whether they can turn things around for the team by the end of the month.
"We can start with baby steps and make this work in Corner Brook again," he said, adding the August deadline is a self-imposed one with some flexibility.
Looking for community support
Fan attendance has been poor since the team returned to play in the city in 2014.
"It definitely put a lot of stress on them when they're not getting fans. And our fans were pretty good, I thought, but all over the league the fans are down, so it gets harder and harder every year, for sure," said Royals head coach Darren Langdon.
Langdon said that, coupled with the expense of having to import players from St. John's, Halifax and further afield created a financial strain within the organization.
Woodman, a prominent businessman in Corner Brook, said he's not attempting to make the team profitable, but rather hopes to turn it into a community-based organization in order for it to have a future.
"We want the community to support this thing. We think that's a possibility or we wouldn't be doing this," he said.
"I will put some money into it, a lot of people realize that, but I made it clear right from the start that I'm not interested in owning a hockey team."
Langdon, for one, hopes the new management can make a go of it.
"It might be nice to relax for a couple weeks in the winter, but when it all comes down to it I'd rather be coaching."
