The Western Hockey League announced today that the WHL Board of Governors have approved the application to transfer the ownership of the Prince George Cougars and the Regina Pats WHL franchises.
The WHL Board of Governors voted unanimously to approve the transfer of the Prince George Cougars ownership from Rick Brodsky to EDGEPRO Sports and Entertainment Ltd., and the Regina Pats from Russ and Diane Parker to Queen City Sports and Entertainment Group Ltd.
The new Prince George ownership group is led by local businessman Greg Pocock along with partners Ernest Ouellet, Raymond Fortier, and John Pateman. Former Prince George Cougars and current NHL players Dan Hamhuis and Eric Brewer are also key members of the new ownership entity.
The Prince George Cougars franchise relocated from Victoria twenty years ago. Rick Brodsky has been the only owner of the Cougars WHL franchise since it began operations in Prince George in 1994.
The new ownership group in Regina is headed by local businessman Anthony Marquart, who takes over the franchise from Russ and Diane Parker who have owned and operated the Pats franchise for the past 19 seasons. The other members of the Queen City Sports and Entertainment group includes prominent Regina businessmen Todd Lumbard, Gavin Semple, Shaun Semple, and Jason Drummond.
“The WHL is fortunate to have attracted two very high calibre ownership groups who are fully committed to whatever is necessary to take the Prince George Cougars and the Regina Pats franchises to a new level,” commented WHL Commissioner Ron Robison. “We are confident that fans will enthusiastically embrace the local ownership groups and bring long-term stability to these WHL markets.”
It’s anticipated that both sales will close prior to the end of May. Further details will be announced in the near future when the new ownership groups conduct media conferences in both Prince George and Regina.
8 comments:
Thank god!
Its not hard to say this group will do a better job than the last group. However, if Mr. Markwart makes his son the GM all bets are off.
Mike
Mitch, is this Markwart guy related to Kelly and Nevin.
No, the spellings are different. Kelly and Nevin are "Markwart" and Anthony is "Marquart".
On the whole this is a good move that should eventually yield some good results. I am somewhat unsure if the new owners really know the state of the club. While there are new owners, the entire club top to bottom is still the Parkers club. Right from the GM to the office staff.
The Pats had an 85 point season the same as Swift Current. They got the pennant but the division was terribly weak. This team continues to trade away picks and in tomorrows draft they don't have many picks. They don't have picks in the 3rd, 4th or 5th rounds. Some were traded away to get players needed to win an 85 point season.
The team is still mediocre overall. in the four years the current GM has been in place, the team has made the playoffs twice and missed them twice. I hope he can take this team to the consistently elite level. I also hope the new president is capable of making the moves required to turn this franchise into an elite team.
Bring back Todd Ripplinger!
Any truth to the Sillinger/Heward rumours floating around out there?
Ripplinger set the franchise so far back. If he was such a so called "hockey guy" he would have resurfaced in the league. He was and still is lazy
Go pats!!!!!!!!
What!!!!! No BLOWBAMA on here preaching his leftest lunacy!
David Susuki
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