Ocahapowace's bid for Pats rejectedWindspeaker Staff

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Sports

Everybody except Freddy Kreuger dreads Friday the 13the. Chief Denton George, the Ochapowace First Nation and some Regina hockey fans probably don't think much of Friday the 16th.

By a 16 to 1 conference call vote on that day in June, the Western Hockey League board of governors rejected the $1.7-million sale of the major junior Pats club from three Regina businessmen to the Ochapowace First Nations Band. The WHL has purchased the team and will now sell it to the highest bidder.

Ochapowace's lack of experience in running sports franchises was the deciding factor in the sale's rejection, said league president Ed Chynoweth.

"The general view of the board of governors was that they'd have to find someone with a lot more experience in operating a sports franchise," he said. "Money was certainly not the total issue here."

In an interview before the sale was rejected, Chief George said that the Pats' purchase was a sound business investment for the band.

"We have three reasons for making the purchase," he said. "It appears to us that, given a good marketing campaign and a good front office, this investment could make some dollars.

"It would also show the public that Indian bands and individuals have the ability to run a business of this size and profile. It would also let us become corporate citizens of Regina."

The Ochapowace Band Council has quite a lot of business experience, though not in the sports market. The band runs a gravel crushing outfit, a ski resort, a community pasture and feedlot, pure-bred-cattle operations, a housing construction company, a plumbing business and a printing press in and around their reserve near Broadview, 100 km. east of Regina.

Those business skills would transfer quickly to running a hockey team, George said.

"Business is business is business," he said. Running a major junior hockey team "shouldn't be much different from other businesses which we operate."

Chynoweth, in his third decade as league president, disagreed.

"Anybody who follows sports knows that it's no ordinary business," he said. "There's going to be a lot of hard work involved. It's a 12-month-of-the-year business."

The Ochapowace First Nations ended a two-week bidding war for the Pats June 9 by agreeing to purchase the club from Regina businessmen Morley Gusway, Bill Hickie and Ted Knight. Chynoweth said the first indication that the band's bid was in trouble came when former coach Norm Johnston, fired after one season last April by the old owners, was given a verbal contract by the new owners to be the Pats' coach and general manager.

"A lot of eyebrows were raised around the league when they couldn't find someone with some WHL experience in important positions," Chynoweth said. Johnston's year with the Pats, in 1994-95, was his first in the league.

"The league will now examine as many as three really serious bids," for the club, including from the Ochaspowace First Nations, Calgary businessman Russ Parker and a third mystery group at the league's board of governors meeting June 20 and 21 in Calgary, Chynoweth said.

Chief George was unavailable for comment after the sale was rejected. Fran Huck, an ex-Pats, NHL and Canadian National Team player and Ochapowace's legal counsel for the deal, said the band council would meet to plan further strategy.

At least a dozen business groups made bids for the Pats, including the owners of the Vancouver VooDoos of Roller Hockey International, the Starblanket Band of nearby Fort Qu'Appelle, owners of the Tier II Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League's Lebret Eagles, and Parker, who owns the Calgary Cannons Triple-'A- baseball club and the minor-pro International Hockey League's Kansas City Blades. Representatives of 12 of the Western Hockey League's 17 teams must approve the sale.

Whoever buys the club may be in for a rough time. Since 1986, the Regina Pats have dwelt in the bottom half of the WHL's Western Division, compiling 290 wins, 323 losses and 35 ties.Dspite a seemingly endless trail of coaches, the Pats lost more games than they won in six of those nine seasons, including all of the last four.

Almost all scouting, marketing and coaching decisions have been on hold since the beginning of April, when the Pats were eliminated from the playoffs and the club was put up for sale. George said the band was negotiating for commercial sponsorships and talking to two Regina radio stations about broadcasting rights, but any work they have done for the Pats has apparently fallen through with the sale. As well, Johnston is back looking for work.

Expansion and realignment has the Pats in a very rough division, with the Brandon Wheat Kings, Moose Jaw Warriors, Saskatoon Blades and Prince Albert Raiders. A playoff series, where most junior hockey clubs make their money, appears at best unlikely. With the Canadian Football League's Saskatchewan roughriders hosting the 1995 Grey Cup championship this November, the sports dollar from ticket buyers and corporate sponsors will be spread very thinly in the small city of 200,000.

"The Pats wee one of the cornerstone teams in our league," Chynoweth said, adding that a lot of work from experienced hockey men and businessmen, a lot of patience and a lot of luck will be needed to turn the club around. If the Pats situation isn't resolved at the board of governors' meeting, "then I'm going to have a long summer."