Canes' Hold Marathon A.G.M.

Crowd Assembles for Wednesday's AGM

It turned out to be a very long evening Wednesday for the Hurricanes Annual General Meeting.

The meeting started at 7pm and lasted until the wee hours of Thursday morning, more than 5 hours after it began. 218 shareholders packed into a sweltering room at the Ramada for the hockey team's 23rd AGM. It was standing room only as the meeting was getting started. This was also the largest attendance for a Canes' Annual General Meeting in the last five years and I suppose given all the talk during the off-season I can't say I'm surprised.

The meeting got off to kind of a slow start as there was some confusion as to how the voting would take place. President Brian McNaughton informed the crowd that business matters at the team's AGM are usually dealt with by a show of hands unless five shareholders request a ballot be used on a specific item. Once it was sorted out, the meeting moved ahead with the shareholders voting by a show of hands, until the election of directors which took place conducted by ballot.

McNaughton presented his President's report. He was on the hot seat for most of it and was asked some pointed questions during that time about the relationship between the past General Manager Roy Stasiuk and Head Coach Michael Dyck. McNaughton stated that he could not comment on any matters relating to the evaluations of employees and left it at that, to the dislike of some in the crowd.

McNaughton did address four points in his report: Accessibility/Communication, Size of the Board, Involvement of the Board in Hockey Operations, and Respect of the Hurricanes in the WHL. He was not in favour of downsizing the board. He says that makes the organization vulnerable. He also stated that Lethbridge is very well respected amongst the teams in the Western Hockey League. McNaughton also says an email address is being set up that will allow fans and shareholders to email the board directly with any questions and the board will respond to all questions in due time. He also mentioned that the board is committed to community ownership and every candidate running for the board that spoke Wednesday also said the same thing, that they fully support the Hurricanes as being a community owned team. McNaughton said as well that the board is not controlled by "a select few" as some may think.

On to the finances. The Lethbridge Hurricanes made $76, 706 in the 2008-2009 season. That was down from $411,000 the previous year, but that big number in 07/08 had a lot to do with the long playoff run. It was announced that the team right now is sitting at just over 2200 seasons tickets sold, which is actually ahead of where the team was at this point last season. I guess if you look at the big picture the Hurricanes have come along way in the past 6 season with seasons ticket sales. In '03, the Canes had only 1100 seasons ticket holders, last year it was just over 2400 and this year the goal is 2600.

Herman Elfring gave a brief Governor's report. He said last year, the Lethbridge Hurricanes had the 5th biggest increase in attendance in the WHL averaging 4030 fans per game during the regular season. He mentioned the league wants all rinks to have video replay for the fans on big screens and jumbotrons by 2012. He also reiterated the fact the Hurricanes will take a shot at landing the 2013 Memorial Cup once the Enmax Centre renovations are complete. Elfring stated that all teams will wear a new look Reebok Edge style Jersey this year and those will debut starting opening night on September 18th. Elfring decided not to run for a board position as his term was up this year. He had been on the board for the past 20 years. He was, however appointed the team's Governor at a board meeting held a few weeks ago so he'll continue in that roll for the next 3 years. Elfring told me it was time to let someone else sit on the board and that's why he decided not to put his name forward again.

New G.M./Head Coach Rich Preston gave a brief report. He talked about looking forward to the challenge of the upcoming season which begins next Thursday with training camp. He also talked a bit about the staff he hired on. Preston said six returning players have been invited to NHL camps this year. Carter Bancks will head to San Jose's camp, Carter Ashton heads to Tampa Bay, Kyle Beach to Chicago, Austin Fyten was invited to Detroit's camp, Eric Mestery to Washington, while Brennan Yadlowski will attend Philadelphia's camp.

The meeting was only half over at that point. Then came the election of the board of directors. 11 people put their names forward for five positions. Each candidate gave a little speech before the voting took place. There were 218 shareholders which represented a total of 715 votes. It took about 30 minutes for the voting to take place and 90 minutes to count. Once it was all said and done, just after mid-night the results were in.

Re-elected to the Hurricanes Board are: Dave Olson and Auke Elzinga. The new comers include Pat Shimbashi, my old broadcast partner Dick Gibson, and George McRae who was part of the "group of five" who've been campaigning for change on the board. Obviously the other four did not get elected, but regardless of who you support you have to give those five guys some credit. Many times you hear of people complaining, but when it's time to stand and have a say, they don't do anything, but at least these five guys put their money where their mouths are so to speak. They lead the charge for change and let their names stand. They and all those who ran should be commended for it.

So there you have it! That's kind of the AGM in a nutshell from the way I saw it. It's nice that this is all over now and hopefully with training camp starting next Thursday, the focus will now turn to the on-ice product of the Lethbridge Hurricanes!

Thanks,


Pat