The Art Hauser Centre, home of the Prince Albert Raiders, is one of the oldest and smallest rinks in the WHL. It had $6.2 million in upgrades a few years back, but now more are needed.
According to Lee Atkinson, the Ward 3 city councilor, the rink is losing hundreds of thousands of dollars a year."The revenues on this building and the team being here, my estimation, in the last number of years, the numbers I've seen are a $600,000 to $700,000 deficit."
With these numbers in mind, could the club be looking to move to the brighter lights of a bigger city like Winnipeg?
The Raiders say that's not going to happen.
Gord Broda, the Raiders vice president, says the rumours aren't true. "Even with the addition of a big NHL market in Winnipeg, there are all kinds of rumours, but we have confidence we'll be in P.A. for a long time."
While Broda admits that several larger cities could be in the market for a WHL team, he doesn't think it'll come from Prince Albert.
"The board of directors and team management are continually working hard to make sure the franchise can be viable here, and there's no plans of a relocation at this time," says Broda.
If the team puts a consistent winner on the ice, fans should fill the building. But if the team continues the trend of disappointing seasons and losing early in the playoffs continues, talk of the club moving to a bigger city is sure to start up again.
