PEI Rocket, a team out of the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League, has announced that they will be holding a press conference on Monday, May 27th, to announce their new team name.
Based out of Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island, the team will change their name and branding to represent the city. The team’s new name, the Charlottetown Islanders.
Currently, the agenda for Monday’s press conference includes the details of the teams new team name and logo, the 2013-14 season ticket campaign, as well as the latest additions to the teams new ownership group. The ownership group information will be available pending the final sale of the team.
Those speaking at the press conference will include VP of Operations Trent Birt, one of the new team owners Geoff Boyle, and finally the Mayor of Charlottetown – Clifford Lee.
Despite speculation that the team may be moving when the sale was completed, the Charlottetown City Council was able to guarantee enough money to the team to keep them in town.
“When you throw it all together, what council basically decided was that the value of having Charlottetown in the name of the team, was worth $75,000 a year for the next two years,” said Mayor Clifford Lee.
“At the end of the day we looked and said, ‘What’s the alternative’? And the alternative was to not have a Q team in the city of Charlottetown and that wasn’t appealing to anyone. The benefit of having Charlottetown on the jerseys, to promote Charlottetown all throughout Atlantic Canada, throughout the province of Quebec, on national sports programs, was substantial in council’s mind.”
The new ownership group, which includes 15 business people, initially asked the city for $225,000 in each of the next five years. While that request was declined, the Council was able to approve the $75,000 for the next two years, in addition to $42,000 that was already approved for the team.
Unfortunately, the PEIRocket are one of very few teams in the QMJHL which are not profitable. However, the Mayor expects that after two years, the new ownership group will have turned things around and they will no longer require financial assistance from the City Council.
