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OJHL teams introducing pay-to-play model next season. The league will soon formally announce that players will have to pay to suit up for teams next season.

Fans won’t be the only ones paying to get into Ontario Junior Hockey League games next season.

Players will be, too, after the junior A loop recently removed a bylaw that prevented teams from making players pay to suit up for an OJHL franchise.

A formal announcement of the change in policy has yet to be made by the OJHL, but league officials have confirmed to the Beaver that teams will have the right to choose what fee their players will pay, with no maximum imposed on the amount. Oakville Blades general manager Duncan Harvey said his squad has yet to determine how much it will charge, but suggested it would likely be between $3,000 and $4,000 for the upcoming year — in addition to the $300 players already pay to the Ontario Hockey Association and $750 to the OJHL.

 “The problem we have is that we have three very different distinctive business models in this league. You have your small towns like Wellington, you have more rural communities and then you have the (Greater Toronto Area). Having one model for everybody, you can’t really do it,” said OJHL commissioner Marty Savoy. “We need to let the onus be on the teams themselves to decide how to operate their businesses.”

And business in recent years has not been good for OJHL owners. Savoy believes no franchise in the league turned a profit this past season. Losses for some teams are believed to be as high as six figures.

“The problem is this model,” Harvey said. “The model is based on $60 an hour for ice and $10 wood sticks. We’re paying $150 a stick and every kid needs six sticks (a league minimum for teams to provide players). Throughout the course of a season, if you carry 26 guys, that’s a big chunk of money. Plus, paying $250 an hour for ice, you practise for one-and-a-half hours and your game ice is $750, it adds up pretty quickly.

“Plus, we have to pay our coaching staff and equipment guy. Our budget is nothing crazy, about $300,000. But there’s nothing coming in.”

Paid attendance remains a major issue for the OJHL, particularly in the GTA. Even though the Blades drew the most fans in the league, averaging nearly 600 per contest, many of those tickets were free.

“We’re only pulling in roughly $1,200 on a game night. That’s just enough to pay for our game night,” said Harvey, who dropped ticket prices this past season in his first year as Oakville’s GM. “That doesn’t cover any of our practices, staff, equipment or anything else.”

Another challenge the OJHL faces is the lack of subsidy from higher leagues. According to Harvey, OJHL teams receive $1,500 from Ontario Hockey League squads when they develop a player who moves on to the OHL. But OJHL teams, according to Harvey and Savoy, do not receive any reimbursement from colleges or even from the National Hockey League when players graduate to those levels.

“We’re operating at around $8,000 a player. That’s our cost. He plays with us, we train him up… If he gets a scholarship — a full-ride, $50,000-value-a-year scholarship — we get back nothing,” Harvey said. “Apparently that’s okay.”

Might players leave for other leagues?

The OJHL’s case for charging players seems clear. But how will players respond to having to pay for something they and their predecessors have always enjoyed for free?

“It’s kind of a turnoff to return to that league because it used to be free, and every year I’ve noticed the costs going up and up and up,” said Len Fabbri, a three-year OJHL veteran who played last season for the Blades.

“It’s definitely discouraging, especially for the older guys,” he added. “The younger guys are used to paying to play. But us older guys feel like we paid our dues and we can use all the help we can get.”

It’s not as though players don’t have options. The Greater Ontario Junior Hockey League, a junior B circuit in southwestern Ontario, does not charge its players. Perhaps implementing a pay-to-play structure in the OJHL will result in a mass exodus to the GOJHL, which Savoy admits is “the strongest junior B loop in the country by far.”

But Harvey is not concerned that will happen.

“Junior B is great hockey. If you want to go live in Stratford or Guelph, that’s fine, but there’s nowhere really around here for them to play,” Harvey said.

“And go look at who they play. This is stupid hockey math: ‘I don’t cut a check so it’s a great deal’, but meanwhile mom and dad are driving all over the province to watch their kid play, and their kid is driving all over to get to games and practices… Very quickly, in the end, the costs even out.

“The nice thing about the junior A loop is it’s a GTA loop.”

Savoy, meanwhile, is confident that players will continue to choose the OJHL because of the exposure they receive.

“I don’t think kids want to risk not being evaluated and seen by scouts. We’ve gone from 37 teams to 23 teams (due to contraction that began in 2009), and our number of Division 1 rides has stayed the same,” Savoy said.

“If you’re a kid looking to move on to the next level, you’ll still play in this league. If you’re not, maybe you’ll go to junior B.”

The numbers back up Savoy’s claim. According to league statistics from the 2011-12 season, 85 OJHL alumni played for NHL clubs during the 2010-11 campaign. Another 140 OJHL grads played for NCAA Division 1 squads and 165 suited up at the Canadian Hockey League major junior level.

Savoy also justifies the pay-to-play model by pointing to quality assurances that will be imposed on teams next season. The league recently performed a 110-point audit on all its member franchises, ensuring minimum standards for all clubs to follow. Those requirements come with a significant price tag.

“The standards have now been set. The teams already know what they are. And there are costs associated with that,” said Savoy, who was pleased the audit found the league’s teams to be approximately 85 per cent compliant.

“Teams might have to practise two more times a week at $300 an hour. When you try to elevate standards to make a better product for the athlete, there’s a cost. And to our owners’ credit, they bought into these increases before these changes (to charge players).”

Reputation for having ‘daddy owners’

If perception is everything, the OJHL didn’t have a lot going for itself a few short seasons ago.

“When I first took over, there was a brand image problem with the OJHL,” admitted Savoy, a former Hockey Canada executive who became the OJHL’s first full-time commissioner in 2010.

Contracting teams was a start. Blowouts were far too commonplace in the league for anyone’s liking, particularly scouts who wanted to see best against best. It’s difficult to learn much about players in the third period of a blowout.

Another perception the OJHL continues to battle is that of a league full of “daddy owners” whose primary motivation for funding teams is to ensure their sons can play in the league. If bloodlines are as important as blue lines, both the quality and the credibility of the league are crippled.

Now, it could be argued, the size of people’s wallets might also be a factor in which players suit up for OJHL teams next season.

“We’re looking at the business model of junior A hockey. If the business model is that you’ll lose X number of dollars, there won’t be many people who are going to line up (to buy a team),” countered Savoy, who estimated six or seven OJHL teams are owned by people with sons in the league. “I have heard the daddy owner thing before. Is (St. Michael’s Buzzers owner) Mike McCarron a daddy owner? Well, his son was our top defenceman of the year and is a finalist for top defenceman in the country. (Mike is) a father who owns a team that has a kid in the league.

“The days of having kids in the league that can’t play in the league are over. The league is so much harder to play in. With 37 teams, you could hide a player or two. You can’t hide a player now.”

McCarron is perhaps the best example of how the pay-to-play model could work in the OJHL. Members of the Buzzers were responsible for offsetting some of the franchise’s costs this season (which was “technically allowed” under OHA rules, Savoy said), and McCarron made no secret about it.

“When families pay, they make a commitment to your program. If they don’t see value – I don’t want (them) in the room,” McCarron tweeted April 10, after the Buzzers won the OJHL championship.

“@stmbuzzers proof charging players helps @ojhlofficial teams. Committed families value program. There for right reasons #nobrainer,” he tweeted later that day.

Attempts to reach McCarron for additional comment were unsuccessful. But the Buzzers’ success — they reached the final of the Dudley Hewitt Cup central Canadian championship tournament, falling one win short of a trip to the RBC Royal Bank Cup nationals — makes them a blueprint for other teams, Harvey believes.

“It’s all about the program,” said the Blades GM, adding that minor midget and midget rep hockey — the step before junior A — costs more than some OJHL teams might charge next season. “We already offer a great program, and we’re adding more to it next year. I think it’s the value the players are getting. It’s not just playing a junior A schedule, it’s all the other things these players are getting as well.”

Resistance not surprising

Not everyone sees it that way. One team, the Newmarket Hurricanes, has been openly opposed to the implementation of a pay-to-play policy, though the club politely declined the opportunity to comment on the subject.

“Although you are correct in that our organization opposes pay-to-play at the Jr. A level, at this time we cannot comment on this situation,” Maurice Catenacci, Newmarket’s vice-president and GM, replied to a Beaver email seeking the Hurricanes’ position on pay to play. “I’m sorry and hope you understand, we’ve been asked to refrain from divulging any information at the present time.”

Fabbri sees several logistical issues to charging players next season.

“I think ice time’s a huge thing… It’s kind of unfair for a guy not playing as much as another person but paying the same amount. The OHL is free for everyone, so if you’re a fourth liner, you can’t say… ‘Why am I not getting the same ice as this guy?’” said Fabbri, who is undecided whether he’ll return to the OJHL next year.

“I also think competition will be a bit watered down. Some of the better players might not have the money to pay and be forced to another league. It may not be as competitive.”

Both Harvey and Savoy understand there will be resistance to the OJHL’s change in policy. But, they say, it is a necessary evil.

“This wasn’t an overnight decision. We put a lot of time and effort into this. The standards have to be there, and the teams have to make sure they’re providing a good product,” Savoy said.

“At the end of the day, we have to look at fixing the model. Our teams are losing money. What do we do? Do we let the business die or do we adapt it?” he questioned.

Letting it die is not an option to Harvey and many others.

“Can Canada really exist without junior hockey in these communities? (Teams) are a big part of the history of communities, in the same way that there are buildings you can’t knock down. I think people need to look at junior hockey in the same kind of category,” Harvey said. “(The Blades) are part of the history of Oakville. This team has been here a long time. If the team does more within the community and brings more local kids onto the team, is that worth anything? The answer might be no, and people say too bad, but it won’t be long before these clubs aren’t able to exist.
“The days of when you’re a junior player, it’s a free ride — those days are over.”