The Collingwood Blues will be staying in Collingwood, at least for the next 10 years.
Following a marathon four-and-a-half hour emergency council meeting called on Feb. 15, Mayor Yvonne Hamlin emerged from closed session to report the town had come to an agreement with the Blues for the tenancy of the Eddie Bush Memorial Arena.
“I’m pleased to say we have a unanimous vote of council to agree to terms discussed with the Blues organization this morning. There will be a public announcement of those terms once they are put together,” Hamlin said before adjourning the meeting.
When reached following the announcement, Collingwood Blues owner Dave Steele said he felt “relieved.”
“I’m very glad they saw the value in what we’re offering. We’re ecstatic to be able to continue to serve Collingwood for an additional 10 years minimum,” he said. “I’m thrilled.”
However, it was a long road to get to this point.
The existing Collingwood Blues contract (when signed, the team was called the Collingwood Colts), was signed by the town and team ownership and went into effect in 2019, following the Colts being awarded tenancy of the Eddie Bush Memorial Arena.
The current contract expires Aug. 20, 2024. This past December, the Blues requested an extension to the existing contract for an additional year to allow time for renegotiation while having some certainty prior to committing to the Ontario Junior Hockey League for the 2024-2025 season by their deadline of Jan. 15.
Town council denied the request for an extension, leading Steele to commit to the league for next season without knowing for sure whether there would be a new contract for the Eddie Bush in place.
On Feb. 14, Blues owner Dave Steele told CollingwoodToday that talks between the Blues and the town had broken down, and he had been considering other options for the team for the 2024-25 season.
He said there had been two sticking points in the negotiations with the Town of Collingwood up until that point.
The first, he said, was the town was asking for more money through the new contract. The second was about more control and supervision for the Hall of Fame room at the Eddie Bush Arena.
According to figures provided by the town’s treasurer Monica Quinlan, under the current contract, Blues ownership pays 30 per cent of the advertising revenue they take in at the Eddie Bush and Central Park Arenas. They also pay the town for additional ice time outside of their regular season.
Combining those amounts together, the Blues paid the town:
- $32,100 in 2019-2020,
- $2,900 in 2020-2021 (due to COVID),
- $30,900 in 2021-2022, and
- $35,000 in 2022-2023 for the use of the Eddie Bush.
“If the town would have been OK with keeping that trajectory, they would have received more money over the term of the agreement,” said Steele, adding that the Blues are on-track to provide a bigger payout this year.
“The mission of this team was not to be a profitable venture. It was to be a successful team on the ice and in the community,” he said.
The Hall of Fame room, prior to the Blues tenancy, was open all the time the arena was open. However, some vandalism that started before the Blues took tenancy in 2019 and continued in late 2022 had Steele calling for more security at that time.
While the room is part of the Eddie Bush and is town-owned, Steele invested $86,000 into renovating the room in 2019, including new tables, chairs and couches for the space, which is also branded as the "founders lounge" and access is exclusive during Blues games.
Steele said he wants the room open to whoever wanted to use it, but he wanted users to sign in so they could be held responsible if there was any damage done.
Following council’s announcement, Steele told CollingwoodToday that Blues ownership had presented the town today with two options that both offered more money than the Blues had previously paid for use of the arena. He said both options also included language about better supervision of the Hall of Fame room.
When reached on Thursday, he said he wasn’t yet sure which of the two options councillors chose, and that specific details would be hammered out in the coming days.
“Both options would be a benefit to the community. The money will increase over the course of our agreement in a fair way,” he said. “It will mean more revenue for the town but it keeps us in a position to be financially sustainable.”
Prior to Thursday’s special meeting, the town’s chief administrative officer Sonya Skinner said council had met twice in closed-session meetings previously to discuss the contract.
She noted that the town had consulted with other municipalities about their professional hockey teams and their agreements to help inform the town’s position.
“We are seeking an agreement that will provide reasonable compensation for the use of the arenas, while ensuring income for the Blues given the many costs of developing and running a Junior A hockey team, especially a successful one,” said Skinner.
Overall, Steele says he feels a weight has been lifted.
“Now I can walk into my practice to my players this afternoon and say, we’re here, and you can tell your family, friends and advisors that the Blues organization has an ice contract,” he said.
