The Richardson Pioneer Weyburn Red Wings are going to train and prepare for a hockey season, but without any certainty what sort of season they will be allowed to have in 2020-21, supporters and board members heard at the team鈥檚 annual meeting on Thursday evening.
Originally set for the spring, the annual meeting was put off due to COVID-19, and once the Aug. 27 date was set, the team asked for attendees to register so they would know whether to do the meeting by Zoom or in person.
The team made a profit of $23,000 last year, even without the playoffs, so an item on the books, an intangible asset related to the sale of the team some 30 years ago, was written down in the amount of $33,450, to end with a deficit on the books of $10,357.
From the statement of operations, the team鈥檚 total revenues were $526,140, with $235,010 from the regular season, $201,937 from corporate sponsorship, and $49,542 from fundraising and $39,651 from other revenue, with a gross profit of $110,134.
The expenses totaled $87,041, leaving the profit of $23,093, which was up by about $50,000 from the year before, said Kyle Patterson of MNP, who prepared the financial statement for the hockey club.
One of the debts for the team is the CERB loan from the federal government, a program to mitigate the impact of COVID-19. The team will have three years to pay it back. The team鈥檚 long-term debt totals about $150,000, the attendees were told.
Head coach Rich Pilon talked about getting the team ready for the coming season, noting that 22 players are due to arrive in Weyburn on Sept. 7, of which 12 are returning players from last year.
As to the upcoming hockey season, Pilon said, 鈥淲e have no answers. Really we鈥檙e at the mercy of Sask Health, which is fine.鈥�
The out-of-province players will be tested before they come, he said, and will be tested again once they arrive, plus the Saskatchewan players will be tested. Ice will be going in to the Sports Arena around Sept. 5, and the team will have an extended training period through September into October.
Explaining all the trades that he made last season, Pilon said they went to Showcase in September and realized, 鈥淩eally, we鈥檙e not even close. A year later, I believe we鈥檝e made strides.鈥�
He noted one characteristic of last year鈥檚 team is that they never gave up trying, but the difficulty was they had 30 one-goal games. Pilon also said it took him some time to understand the SJHL better, and now believes it鈥檚 a three-year journey to build up a team to where they want it to be.
The goal this fall is to keep the players developing and getting instruction, said Pilon, and said if they wait until Sept. 25 before starting training, 鈥渢hey鈥檙e going to lose their drive and motivation. Our goal is to build them as balanced hockey players and as individuals.鈥�
He added that they are asking the parents to help with the players鈥� expenses during this extended training time.
The team will also be their own bubble, and Pilon said the players aren鈥檛 going to be able to go off doing whatever they want.
They will be allowed to have up to 30 people on the ice, and they will be using their own dressing room, which Pilon pointed out will be different than minor hockey, where different teams are coming and going from the dressing rooms. The Red Wings have their own space and will stay within that.
Asked if this is a rebuilding year after not making the playoffs last year, the coach replied, 鈥淚 wouldn鈥檛 say that. Last year, we blew it up twice, once when we took over, and we looked at the lineup after Showcase, and we said we鈥檙e not even close.鈥�
For this coming year, he said they have a solid goaltender in Joe Young, and a strong defence, but where they were lacking was goal-scoring ability, and he鈥檚 made some trades that will help in that area.
In his report, team president Brent Stephanson said one of the tough situations for the team was a lot of 18-year-olds going up against 20-year-olds around the league, 鈥渨hich makes it a lot tougher.鈥�
He said the culture in the dressing room changed, such as setting up breakfast to be available in the dressing room, and open doors between the change room and the coaches鈥� room so there were open lines of communication with the players.
He paid tribute to the volunteers, from game-day volunteers to those selling 50-50 tickets or taking tickets at the door.
鈥淭his team doesn鈥檛 run without volunteers. That鈥檚 just a pure fact,鈥� said Stephanson, adding they also are deeply thankful for the team鈥檚 sponsors, including the name sponsors, Richardson Pioneer.
Among the questions raised later in the meeting were how many season tickets were sold by the Red Wings versus how many are given away.
Office manager Terri Stadnek said out of 372 season tickets last year, 183 of those were paid for, with many of the others included in sponsorship packages.
One game example was a home game with Estevan with 1,300 people in the building, but of those only 80 had actually paid to get it. The suggestion was made to take another look at how many season tickets are given away so as not to devalue the game tickets.
With board members Scott Pohl and Lee Moen each having one year left in their terms, the other board positions needed to be filled.
After nominations were made, the board now also includes Brent Stephanson, Ray Jarvis, Anne Phair, Peter Tatarliov, Perry Pyett and Natascha Jasper.
