It's Official - Fog Devils out next season

http://www.lhjmq.qc.ca/lang_en/index.php?page=232&id_nouvelle=651&PHPSESSID=c3979bd9b2fc46d257e88274e2af853a

Hard to believe, gonna be a lot of unhappy Newfs! SJSE is coming out looking like the bad guys in this one :dunce:

http://www.lhjmq.qc.ca/lang_en/index.php?page=232&id_nouvelle=651&PHPSESSID=c3979bd9b2fc46d257e88274e2af853a

Hard to believe, gonna be a lot of unhappy Newfs! SJSE is coming out looking like the bad guys in this one :dunce:


so it looks like saint john gets first pick in the midget draft

Horrible business choice by the Arena owners IMO. Well at least at face value it looks that way. They won't have the Leafs playing their next season and now won't have any team? Shouldn't they be trying to get a team in there as soon as possible so that disgruntled Newfie Leaf fans can quickly shift their attention to the "Fog Devils" (one of the worst names ever btw). A year with no hockey could make some casual fans forget about it.

Overall it comes down to instead having some payments from a team they will have no payments. Genious.

sounds to me like its not quite official yet.

this is from the story on tsn.

"Courteau said it was still possible, but highly unlikely, the Fog Devils could begin play in the fall as planned if Dobbin can reach agreement soon with St. John's Sports and Entertainment (SJSE), the agency that runs the rink for the city.

"At this time, we have made a decision and we'll stick with that," Courteau said. "To come back on this decision will depend on Mr. Dobbin."

more negotiations between dobbin and sjse to come.

the league is as much to blame for all of this as the two arguing sides. the league said before the expansion presentations that no group in either city would get a team if there was no building lease already done. all of a sudden dobbin slams a cheque on the table and all worries are forgotten. bad business decisions for all three parties as far as i'm concered

I hope this can be solved....I wonder have the Fog Devils shown their logos yet?? BUT St. John's could be a good choice for the QMJHL...I doubt the ECHL will set up shop there..and teh AHL?? I dont know... ehhh...

so it looks like saint john gets first pick in the midget draft

Boo-ya! :yo:

Boo-ya! :yo:

Alex Grant would be a wise choice.

How the HELL did they come up with that name? Fan contest?
That's one of the worst I've ever heard. :eek:
Are names like this really the ones that sell merchandise? Is that why they're chosen? Brutal.
Too bad they can't get their **** together regarding the arena. I think the Q would do quite well in St. John's. :shakehead

How the HELL did they come up with that name? Fan contest?
That's one of the worst I've ever heard. :eek:
Are names like this really the ones that sell merchandise? Is that why they're chosen? Brutal.
Too bad they can't get their **** together regarding the arena. I think the Q would do quite well in St. John's. :shakehead

You can blame the QMJHL and SJSE. The QMJHL said they wont award any teams without a lease agreement...well Dobbin threw a big fat cheque on the table and all of a sudden, with no lease agreement Dobbin was awarded the team.

Now SJSE is asking 1.7 million a year in lease fees.

35 home games = $48,600 in lease fees per game.

Average ticket price is 11 bucks. They would need to sell 4418 seats to each game JUST TO COVER THE LEASE FEES. How absurd is that? The QMJHL average attendence is 3100!! Even with a best case scenario of 5000 a game (would put them 3rd in the QMJHL in attendence) they would still lose money because of the travel.

The lease SHOULD be no more than 500K, not 3.5 times that.

I have read thru the post and I agree wholeheartedly with what is said. There are problems with all sides in this.

First, the lease agreement not in place when awarded is the first major downfall to all of this - second, the fact that the decision was blatantly prompted by $500,000.

Dobbin has the money to throw around upfront yet now what we are hearing is that things were ironed out to a point of $300,000.00 difference. Too bad he didn't hang on to his money and use it now.

SJSE are being pigheaded (I will finally admit to that one) because they should look at the overall picture here in being able to rent the building and have hockey here but they are stuck on not getting the team in the first place.

At this point, split the $300,000.00, sign for one year and get this up and going.

For one, I am sick and tired of the bull of this city. The people are the ones who suffer because of the overgrown babies making decisions (I feel that both sides of this are that way). :banghead:

The last thing that bothered me was the fact that Dobbin is saying he has no choice but to lay off his workers, shelf the team and "head to Florida". Brownie points lacking on that one.

As a question - did anyone hear that CUPE is now going after the Q because of they layoff of workers? Another potentially embarassing one?

I heard that the lease the SJSE wanted was in line with what everyone else is doing.

The total amount was with food and concessions plus luxury boxes. I think in every other arena, the teams don't even see any of this revenue(very few have luxury boxes).

But, the sticking point was for merchandise. The SJSE wanted a cut of the merchandise sold, Dobbins refused.

So, 50 000$ per game if you back out the food, it probably comes out to a reasonable amount. This is not about dollars, this has gotten personal. They both hate each other.

Does this mean players from Newfoundland are up for grabs with the OHL?

I guess it will carry on as normal.

Right now, the boys here can declare whether they want to go to the O or the Q.
There are both.

Last year, Josh Day went to the OHL - Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds while
Sam Hounsell went to Victoriaville.

I guess until the time that the Q is here, they can go to either. There is supposed to be some sort of a form sent to the players where they declare their option.

The 2005 draft was going to be the same as the 2004 (and previous) draft.

The NFLD becoming QMJHL Territory wasnt going to kick in until 2006.