Post by wade on Apr 2, 2023 17:40:25 GMT -5
Nobody is “choosing” to open up Allan Cup to second & third tier teams. They’re doing it because they have no choice.
The way top SR AAA teams operated was DIFFERENT and MORE DIFFICULT than the way lower caliber teams operate. But they did so, on the understanding that they’d be able to consistently compete with like minded clubs from all over Canada and potentially earn the honour of being crowned the best amateur men’s team in Canada, as Allan Cup Champions.
Don is of the opinion these top teams disappeared because too many teams were paying players too much money. I gotta tell you guys…it’s NOT accurate.
A couple years ago, I painstakingly went through some of the cornerstone SR AAA franchises and explained how each of them had become defunct. There we’re actually very few examples who ran themselves out of money because they spent it all on players. I’m not saying it didn’t happen but the fact is there was way more to it than that.
Don pointed out Horse Lake, specifically, as a prime culprit of this misnomer. And Don is categorically wrong on that one.
The truth on what happened to Horse Lake is: Yes, they were often flying players into GP to play games for that team. Yes, they spent tons of money on equipment and they had a lot of money. But that team was a GOLD MINE for the NPHL, The CHL & The Allan Cup.
Horse Lake did EXACTLY what SR AAA teams SHOULD DO. They ran a first rate hockey club. But because they were operated by a First Nation Reservation that happened to have a lot of money and they kicked the ever loving shit out of a few teams who happened to belong to some powerful governing cliques, they ended up getting fucked over, multiple times in multiple board rooms & eventually they said “Fuck. This.” And they quit. They were treated terribly. And even now, over 10 years after the last Horse Lake SR AAA campaign was launched, they’re still being shit talked. The ugly truth is (probably) there was racism involved and although most people won’t admit it, when I put all the FACTS together…it seems to be a logical motive.
But racism isn’t what destroyed the Lloydminister Border Kings. Or the Fort St John Flyers. Or the Illes Des Chenes North Stars…and you know what else didn’t destroy these teams? Paying players.
They all spent more money than your Mom & Pop local SR B team, for sure. But they also filled arenas. Won Championships and iced excellence.
In 2012, Sask Hockey BOTCHED Lloyds’ import player list. Whatever the circumstances were, there was a lot of finger pointing and Hockey Sask attempted to levy a BIG fine on the BK’s. That was the beginning of the end of the Border Kings. Very much the same thing happened to IDC in 2016. It’s all in here, I literally reported each incident along with several others & if you guys read the archived threads on here you’ll find them. It’s actually appalling how often it happened and it’s a HUGE reason why SR AAA is dead and it’s even more appalling that there are still on going smoke screens of “paid players” being the demise of SR AAA.
The money being spent on players was, in most cases, done through carefully crafted schemes where teams protected themselves against going over budgets and created ways of making these recruitments into investments, which again, usually proved beneficial to the people involved. The reason(s) it all died, boils down to all these passionate people gradually figuring out they were working harder & doing more to make SR AAA into a highly respected, recognized and prestigious caliber of hockey than what Hockey Canada was ever gonna do.
The Allan Cup and it’s perpetual inability to manage, promote & govern itself LOST the trust & loyalty of entire an entire Province inna 5 year flash fire between 2003-2008. Quebec’s top men’s hockey markets recognized the dead end road, they left Allan Cup and started up their own league with a sustainable business plan & gentlemen…the LNAH actually left 80% of Allan Cup operators in the dust in terms of product, consistency and longevity. So, don’t ever let anyone BULLSHIT you into believing it’s not sustainable for Mens hockey to invest some money on player recruitment.
The only people spinning that yarn are the ones who never figured out how to do it themselves
The way top SR AAA teams operated was DIFFERENT and MORE DIFFICULT than the way lower caliber teams operate. But they did so, on the understanding that they’d be able to consistently compete with like minded clubs from all over Canada and potentially earn the honour of being crowned the best amateur men’s team in Canada, as Allan Cup Champions.
Don is of the opinion these top teams disappeared because too many teams were paying players too much money. I gotta tell you guys…it’s NOT accurate.
A couple years ago, I painstakingly went through some of the cornerstone SR AAA franchises and explained how each of them had become defunct. There we’re actually very few examples who ran themselves out of money because they spent it all on players. I’m not saying it didn’t happen but the fact is there was way more to it than that.
Don pointed out Horse Lake, specifically, as a prime culprit of this misnomer. And Don is categorically wrong on that one.
The truth on what happened to Horse Lake is: Yes, they were often flying players into GP to play games for that team. Yes, they spent tons of money on equipment and they had a lot of money. But that team was a GOLD MINE for the NPHL, The CHL & The Allan Cup.
Horse Lake did EXACTLY what SR AAA teams SHOULD DO. They ran a first rate hockey club. But because they were operated by a First Nation Reservation that happened to have a lot of money and they kicked the ever loving shit out of a few teams who happened to belong to some powerful governing cliques, they ended up getting fucked over, multiple times in multiple board rooms & eventually they said “Fuck. This.” And they quit. They were treated terribly. And even now, over 10 years after the last Horse Lake SR AAA campaign was launched, they’re still being shit talked. The ugly truth is (probably) there was racism involved and although most people won’t admit it, when I put all the FACTS together…it seems to be a logical motive.
But racism isn’t what destroyed the Lloydminister Border Kings. Or the Fort St John Flyers. Or the Illes Des Chenes North Stars…and you know what else didn’t destroy these teams? Paying players.
They all spent more money than your Mom & Pop local SR B team, for sure. But they also filled arenas. Won Championships and iced excellence.
In 2012, Sask Hockey BOTCHED Lloyds’ import player list. Whatever the circumstances were, there was a lot of finger pointing and Hockey Sask attempted to levy a BIG fine on the BK’s. That was the beginning of the end of the Border Kings. Very much the same thing happened to IDC in 2016. It’s all in here, I literally reported each incident along with several others & if you guys read the archived threads on here you’ll find them. It’s actually appalling how often it happened and it’s a HUGE reason why SR AAA is dead and it’s even more appalling that there are still on going smoke screens of “paid players” being the demise of SR AAA.
The money being spent on players was, in most cases, done through carefully crafted schemes where teams protected themselves against going over budgets and created ways of making these recruitments into investments, which again, usually proved beneficial to the people involved. The reason(s) it all died, boils down to all these passionate people gradually figuring out they were working harder & doing more to make SR AAA into a highly respected, recognized and prestigious caliber of hockey than what Hockey Canada was ever gonna do.
The Allan Cup and it’s perpetual inability to manage, promote & govern itself LOST the trust & loyalty of entire an entire Province inna 5 year flash fire between 2003-2008. Quebec’s top men’s hockey markets recognized the dead end road, they left Allan Cup and started up their own league with a sustainable business plan & gentlemen…the LNAH actually left 80% of Allan Cup operators in the dust in terms of product, consistency and longevity. So, don’t ever let anyone BULLSHIT you into believing it’s not sustainable for Mens hockey to invest some money on player recruitment.
The only people spinning that yarn are the ones who never figured out how to do it themselves