Terrier president Corvyn Neufeld told the team’s Annual General Meeting Monday that the past season “was like no other in our history,” adding they did not “have a playbook on how to make things work ... how to navigate through a pandemic-cancelled season.”
Even with the six games played, fan numbers were limited, and the rules regarding play “seemed to change every day,” said Neufeld.
And, once the season was cancelled advertisers and season ticket holders “had lots of questions,” he noted, adding the team did not always have ready answers.
But, now the board of directors is focused on making the Terriers “one of the top franchises in the SJHL,” said Neufeld.
They will do that from a far better financial position reported Christopher Kosteroski at the AGM.
While noting the pandemic made it “impossible to do budgets or projections” when the year-end numbers were finalized the numbers were encouraging.
“We are in a good financial position to start the season,” he said.
The reason for the strong financial position is almost entirely because of government program dollars flowing to the team because of the COVID-19 pandemic, said Kosteroski. Grant dollars would total just shy of $300,000.
The money included $90,909, the Terriers share of a $1 million grant given by the provincial government to the SJHL, which was split between the league office and the teams in the league, said Kosteroski.
Other grant dollars included $71,697 from the Canada Emergency Wage Subsidy, $25,000 from the Saskatchewan Small Business Emergency Payment Program, $24,579 as a Saskatchewan Sport Grant, $20,000 as a forgivable CENA loan, and $6,907 from the Canada Emergency Rent Subsidy.
As a result of the grant money flowing in the Terriers went from a year end deficit in 2020 of $131,793 to a modest surplus of $38,680.
The AGM also acclaimed five directors to two-year terms on the Board.
Peter Franck, Chad Holinaty, Curtis Maleschuk, and Curtis Malysh were returned, and Kathy Pearson was added.
