Pelham Town Council was treated to a scaled-down version of some of the polarized debate municipalities face by hosting a sports franchise during its July 26 meeting. While going over the lease the Pelham Panthers Junior B hockey team has with the Town-owned Meridian Community Centre, Ward 3 Councillor Bob Hildebrandt moved to defer approval of a new licence agreement for the team. The current agreement expires Aug. 31.
Hildebrandt took issue with the fact that the Panthers only pay a paltry $1,000 per year for tenancy at the arena.
“For $1000, [the team gets] 365 days of the use of the dressing room, two offices, one kitchen … showers, washer/dryer, fridge and a hot tub. I’m convinced the $1000 does not cover the cost of providing all that.”
Hildebrandt, who sat on the Town’s Utility Sustainability Committee — with a focus on finding efficiencies at the MCC — cited increasing utility costs as a reason it’s a bad deal. He also added that few of the Panthers players are from Pelham.
“The serious concern I have is the number of players that are on the team that represent Pelham are few, if any,” he said.
The team moved to Pelham from Port Colborne in 2014. Part of the Greater Ontario Junior Hockey League, the circuit is one step below in the Junior A Ontario Hockey League, which is a major feeder system for the NHL. Virtually all of the teens on last season’s roster were from Southern Ontario or the northern U.S., with only two from Pelham.
Another part of the Town’s licence agreement with the Panthers states that if the number of tickets sold for a game is 500 or greater, the team will pay 50 percent of the admission fees to the Town.
Post-pandemic attendance, however, has been spotty.
Pelham Director of Recreation, Culture and Wellness Vickie vanRavenswaay offered a similar defense for the team that is often heard when larger cities bankroll stadiums for professional sports franchises.
“If you look at the operations of a junior hockey club in various municipalities, it isn’t always recouping the full cost of having the opportunity to have a junior hockey club in your town,” vanRavenswaay said. “Many municipalities actually pay the hockey association to be there. It’s the economic development, the actual pleasure of having a higher level of hockey in your community, and when you have a team that is successful and if they are winning … they will bring more and more people into the community.”
Hildebrandt said that may be the case at the Junior A level, but asserted Junior B hockey is a different equation.
Town Solicitor Jennifer Stirton told council it is possible the fee charged to the Panthers could be increased. A report is due back for the Aug. 16 meeting, which is two weeks before the current licence agreement expires.
Odds and ends
-Council officially passed its long-awaited hen bylaw. Non-farming-entity chickens are now restricted to properties no smaller than one acre or 0.6 hectares.
-Council passed a budget increase of an extra $119,000 for its road rehabilitation program. The initial contract with Walker Construction Limited came in at just over $1 million.
-Deputy Mayor John Wink asked staff when construction would commence on parking for the Shoppes of Ridgeville. Public Works Director Jason Marr said he was still awaiting a schedule for the contractor.
-Wink reported that the final tally for Summerfest 2023 saw a record-setting visitor attendance number of 43,000 over the four-day event.
-Much of the video recording’s audio for the meeting was lost. Town Communications Specialist Leah Letford told PelhamToday that staff would “troubleshoot” the issue, and provide a summary. Neither repaired audio nor a summary were available as of this writing.
