The Grande Prairie Storm is asking the City of Grande Prairie for forgiveness on their contract with a local arena. New President of the organization Murray Toews says they are looking for the pardon from around $89,000 owed in contract to Revolution Place for 10 months of the 2015-2016 year. The city administration will now look at the ask and look into reports on how it will not happen again.
Toews explains that they are working towards making a more sustainable budget for the upcoming year and have plans to get more people in the seats this season.
“The first plan was hiring Dennis [Rix]. We want to relay his story to young hockey players. He grew up through Grande Prairie …getting a scholarship and a business degree. We have to get the message out there to the local boys.”
He adds that the addition of Assistant Coach and Business Manager Dennis Rix will also help in looking into getting local boys on the ice.
A budget was made up at the Grande Prairie Storm meeting Monday night of $700,000 which had previously been $1.2 million but Toews says that nothing is confirmed yet. They also added 7 new members to their board as of Monday.
The Save Our Storm campaign is ongoing but it is getting pushed aside as the new season comes closer.
“What is the Storm doing for the community and for our hockey players. It brought us forward $12,000 but it is time to move forward.”
The Grande Prairie Storm will hold their first camp August 2016.