– But Town wants local debts cleared –

(OSOYOOS TIMES — May 30, 2007) –

By Lawrence McMahenrnOsoyoos Times

The World Hockey Association (WHA), owner of the Osoyoos Spurs team that played here last winter, has paid the money it owed to the Town and says it plans to ask Council to let the Spurs play at the local Sun Bowl Arena again in the upcoming 2008-09 hockey season.
But Mayor John Slater says Council will want to be assured that all WHA debts to people and businesses in Osoyoos have been paid before it approves another season for the Spurs in the local rink.
Town of Osoyoos Chief Administrative Officer Helen Koning confirms that on May 18 WHA President Ricky Smith paid the full amount of more than $12,300 the hockey league owed the Town for rental of arena ice-time and the Town's share of advertising space in the Sun Bowl Arena sold to local businesses.
She says that, as a result, the Town has withdrawn the small-claims legal action it had launched a couple of months ago to retrieve the money.
Koning also says Smith and former National Hockey League star Gary Unger, now coach of the WHA's team in New Westminster, met with Osoyoos Recreation & Leisure Services Director Gerald Davis a few days ago to informally discuss the possibility of the Spurs returning to Osoyoos.
Smith and Unger were told the WHA will have to send a formal request to Council for a new deal to play in Osoyoos.
This past February 12, less than six months into a six-year contract for use of the Sun Bowl Arena by the Spurs, Town Council voted to terminate the agreement, citing breach of contract by the WHA for non-payment.
That contract began on August 26, 2006 and was to run to March 31, 2012. It included ice time for training camps, practices and games at $44 per hour at the Sun Bowl Arena. It also provided for an exclusive team dressing room, office space and commercial advertising space on the rink boards and walls, with the Town receiving 25 per cent of the estimated $23,000 the WHA sold in the fall of 2006.
Through the winter the WHA was beset by reports that it had not paid some of the towns its teams played in, as well as some of its suppliers. A Lower Mainland bus company sued the league for payment of more than $70,000. And former Osoyoos Spurs coach Ken Southwick and office assistant Gerry Ellingson both filed complaints with the B.C. Ministry of Labour for alleged lack of full payment for their work.
In mid-February WHA officials cut the league's first season short and held an abbreviated playoff series, saying it needed to determine a champion in time to play a national championship series with the winner of an Ontario-based junior hockey league, starting April 1.
Instead of playing the 48 games originally scheduled for their first regular season, the Spurs ended up playing just 35 games.
Koning says it will be up to Council whether it considers a new WHA request to play hockey in Osoyoos, and what terms will be placed in any contract.
Mayor Slater says Council will consider more than just whether or not the Town has been paid.
The Town is very concerned about allegations that some business owners, some of the billets, some of the (Spurs) staff didn't get paid “ and we want to make sure that's cleaned up, Slater says.
We want hockey back here, for the fans and for everyone in the community, he adds, but Council feels it must insist things are being run properly.
Slater says Council will also want to know that there are enough teams to make a viable league for an Osoyoos team to play in.
In the past two months the WHA has issued a number of news releases announcing expansion of the league through the granting of franchises in Montreal, Quebec City, Edmonton, Vancouver (Washington), and an unnamed city in B.C.
In an Osoyoos interview last week with host David Douglas on Persona Cable-18 TV, Smith and Unger admitted the WHA had problems during its first season and said that kind of thing happens with a major new venture like this hockey league. They told Douglas the WHA will become a full Junior-A league in 2007-08, with up to 16 teams.
This past season the WHA billed itself as a Junior West league and had six teams “ Osoyoos, Lumby, Armstrong, Squamish, New Westminster and Bellingham (Washington).