Findlater: this is sad news

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West Kelowna's mayor expressed concern and distress upon hearing news the West Kelowna Warriors would be leaving town following the season.

Citing mounting losses, Warriors owner Mark Cheyne said he has an offer pending to sell the team to a Delta businessman. The team would then be moved to the Sungod Arena in North Delta.

"Overall, this is very, very sad news," said Mayor Doug Findlater.

"But, I appreciate Mark had to make a business decision based on not enough bums in the seats."

The city did what it could to assist the Warriors, reducing their rent by 16 per cent this season. But, beyond that, Findlater said the city couldn't do much to help the team.

"There are limitations legislatively on what a local government can do for a business in terms of subsidy."

He says he is concerned for the employees and the volunteers – "it's going to hit them hard," he said.

In terms of economic impact, Findlater says there is no data, but said quite a few businesses tightly tied to the team will feel the loss.

While the Warriors appear headed out of town, the mayor hopes there's an opportunity for another Junior A team to come to the city at some point down the road.

But, he cautions the city is not going to subsidize a team, citing the mess Abbotsford got into by subsidizing the American Hockey League's Abbotsford Heat.

"We'll put the word out, and if somebody does want to move here from another BC Junior community, we would certainly look at it and give them a similar deal. When they got the rent reduction, there was some science behind it.

"The big question is, how do we get people here to pay for tickets and go to the games.  That's always been the complex issue. They have other alternatives, let's put it that way."

City council has asked for an impact report on the loss of the team. Findlater says they will have a discussion at that time.

He does say the city shouldn't feel too much of an impact at Royal LePage Place.

"We have people lined up, and people turned away from using the arena, both for non-ice events and ice events. It's probably not going to be significant in terms of loss of revenue," he said.

"We've had people trying to get in that couldn't get in because of the time the Warriors needed."