The local hockey landscape got rocked last week with revelations about the Owen Sound Greys.
The Ontario Hockey Association and major sponsor David Arsenault both confirmed that preliminary talks pertaining to either moving the Greys, specifically to Brampton, or having new leadership from Owen Sound & area take over the operation, freeing Arsenault to apply to operate another club elsewhere, have been ongoing since January.
A shock to some. To others they may wonder why it took so long to surface.
In late January on a Saturday night, the Greys were scheduled to have a road game. The persisting buzz in the community was the club was financially strapped and the potential existed that the players would have to drive themselves to the contest since the regular transportation company had not been paid sufficiently and thus wouldn’t be on hand for the journey.
Since the Attack were to play that night, I made a point of popping by the Bayshore Parking lot to have a look.
Sure enough, the regular Greys bus was there, but the stories continued to come forward about payments to billet families and post game meals and more that were being done moment by moment basis.
So this isn’t a new story, really.
What is new is what comes next.
Does a new leadership team come forward and revive the team, separating David Arsenault from the Greys and the Greys from Arsenault ?
I’m having trouble seeing that at the moment.
Or, as the Greys approach an historic point in a century of Junior Hockey, have a variety of factors, all with financial implications, taken their toll on the operation and dealt the Owen Sound Greys a death blow.
I’m Fred Wallace