THUNDER BAY -- Tom Warden says it’s still up in the air where the Lakehead Thunderwolves hockey team will play a chunk of its games should a new event centre be built in Thunder Bay.
On Monday consultants assisting the city formulate a plan to construct a 5,600-seat, $109-million facility in the downtown north core said the Thunderwolves are only expected to play dozen or so games a season at the event centre.
The OUA team is scheduled to play 19 home games, including non-conference play, in 2014-15, plus any playoff games.
Warden, the school’s athletic director, was non-committal when asked where the team’s second home might be. The team held its recent training camp at Port Arthur Arena, which the city says can hold slightly fewer than 1,000 spectators. The Tournament Centre is another option, with a slightly higher capacity.
Warden stressed the university wholeheartedly supports the event centre concept and the privately run, non-profit Thunderwolves hockey team and its backers have been made aware they likely wouldn’t be playing all of their games at the yet-to-be approved event centre.
“What marquee means, how many games we’re going to play there still remain to be determined,” Warden said Tuesday.
“But I’m very confident with our relationship with the city and the fact that they’re going to work to ensure that we have a venue to play in and that our viability continues.”
The Wolves, who returned to the university ranks in 2001, averaged about 2,700 fans last season, down from its mid 2000s heyday when sellout of 3,700 fans were not uncommon and the team regularly topped 3,000 spectators most nights.
Warden said there are plenty of options on the table, including staying at the 63-year-old Gardens or moving to another rink. He also didn’t rule out the possibility of a new rink, when specifically asked if that might be in the plans.
The city has held public consultations about the future of the Gardens, with most of the solutions including removing the ice surface. At the time consultant Conrad Boychuk suggested closing the Gardens might be combined with the addition of a twin-rink ice pad at the Delaney Arena location.
“It’s not going to be something where the city says, ‘You’re going to play here,’” Warden said. “It’s going to be here’s what we need to be viable, here’s the seat numbers we’re going to need, here’s what our fans and our loyal supporters are asking for. Let’s work on this together.”
Mayor Keith Hobbs confirmed that talks with Lakehead University and team officials are ongoing, stressing he’s said all along he doesn’t want the arrival of a new event centre to impact the Thunderwolves program.
“We’re still trying to figure out where that’s going to happen. It could happen at the Gardens,” Hobbs said, adding the school has asked him not to publicly discuss any potential plans until further down the road.
“They asked us to keep it under our hats for now. There are options on the table. We don’t want to see the Thunderwolves program suffer and I’ve said that all along.”
Hobbs said there still remains the possibility the university team could be the anchor tenant at the event centre.
“We don’t know what’s going to happen with True North (Sports and Entertainment) and their AHL team. So we’ve never hung our hat totally on (getting) the Winnipeg Jets AHL farm club,” Hobbs said.
The city is holding an event centre open house on Sept. 24 five days ahead of a scheduled city council vote to decide whether or not to take the project to Phase 4.
