The mess of last season and the lost 2020 playoffs will expedite a lot of money problems for many teams. In the QMJHL, it's hard not to immediately think of the Acadie-Bathurst Titan when this topic comes up.
The Northern Light (paywall) reported Monday that the owners of the Titan will decide the team's future following the first half. The club has lost more than $500,000 in each of the past two seasons.
From The Northern Light:
"We probably have to make a decision by Christmastime on the future of the team," said Titan president Serge Thériault. "Because, you don't move a team or sell a team in a few weeks, that's a process."It's a short period of time, but at the end of the day, we've been at it for eight years also and we haven't seen the improvement at the gate."
L'Acadie Nouvelle has also been reporting on the Titan's troubles over the past couple months.
Thériault said the team needs around 2,500 fans per game to be sustainable. HockeyDB numbers show that the Titan have not reached that average since 2002-03 and have not surpassed the 2,000 fans per game mark since 2007-08.
Reaching the 2,500 fans per game average is possible... but it's hard to feel overly optimistic given the team's attendance numbers over the past decade. While new owners could keep the team in Bathurst, it's hard to picture it given the size of the region and its economic state. The CHL continues to outgrow small markets like Bathurst, which is sad to see.
There are a couple things working in the Titan's favour at least. Demand for live events could be up given last season's situation plus the team should be quite good, headlined by Hendrix Lapierre, Riley Kidney, Cole Huckins and others.
The Titan were sold to a local ownership group in 2013 after many years of relocation rumours and speculation. The team announced last October that the organization had "reduced the number of shareholders to 12 from the previous number of 28."
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