The Yorkton Terriers Junior A Hockey team announced its “Save the Terriers” season ticket blitz fundraiser on Jan. 29 in hopes of saving the club from folding.
“Losing the Yorkton Terriers in this community would be massive,” said Calvin Tokarchuk, director of marketing and public relations for the team.
"We need about 1,000 season tickets sold for next year, at $200 a season ticket, to get out of where we are and have a little bit to move forward with."
According to a statement from the team, it costs over $700,000 a season to operate the club. Although the club has not provided specifics on how much debt they are in, they are one of many hockey teams in the Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League (SJHL) who are struggling financially.
"You need fans to make it successful. We have 12 teams, in the league and it's tough for everyone, everyone has had their issues,” former Terrier and current board member Grant Ottenbreit explained.
“I know a lot of teams have had fundraising problems in the past or financial problems and have been close to where we are, the same spot that we're in so it's nothing new to the junior hockey world."
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Ottenbreit has been supporting the Terriers for more than 40 years, first as a player, then as a volunteer, now as a board member.
“Every team has had its problems, it’s a struggle every night for every team,” he said.
“If you look around at the league the average attendance, as bad as ours is, I don’t know if we’re at the bottom, it’s just tough to get people out at the rink.”
Despite the Terriers being in dire straits, Ottenbreit said he is confident the team will make a financial comeback as long as they have the community’s support.
"We're not looking for a hand out, what we're asking for is people to support us,” he said.
“Come out, pay a few bucks, come watch some hockey, visit with people in the rink. It's a community event, it's not just a hockey game you're going to watch, you run into neighbours, you run into some people you haven't seen in a while, it’s a place to get together.”
The City of Yorkton said the club has faced similar financial challenges in the past and members from the community came together to support the club.
"It was the whole community, it wasn't just specific people stepping up,” Mayor of Yorkton Mitch Hippsley told CTV News.
“People went back to the games, they started buying lottery tickets, they had a really aggressive committee and organization who really went out of their way, we had businesses who said 'okay let's get this fixed.'"
Hippsley said the city tries to support the Yorkton Terriers as much as they can.
In addition to providing free ice time for the Yorkton Terriers practices at the community’s arena, the city funded $80,000 towards retrofitting the dressing rooms at the Gallagher Centre last year.
“This is a not-for-profit organization, we’re always there to try and help wherever we can that’s reasonable, because there’s lots of organizations that also ask for help,” Hippsley said.
The “Save the Terriers” ticket blitz fundraiser is currently underway.
Tokarchuk said if the club successfully sells at least 1,000 tickets for the 2024-25 season, the franchise will not only finish this year’s season – but have enough funds to carry over for the future.
