No Red Leafs In Canada West

Despite the logic of having a third BC-based university hockey program under Canada West's watch, the dream of seeing the Simon Fraser University Red Leafs make the jump to U SPORTS hockey is now dead-on-arrival with the news that was reported yesterday. I know that SFU is experiencing a "tightening of the purse strings" like most of the big universities across Canada, but the men's at-large hockey program that played against both U SPORTS and NCAA competitors whenever possible is officially being slashed at the end of the current season as per Simon Fraser University. Along with the lacrosse team, the university found that these two teams were "“not sustainable due to financial, regulatory and logistical constraints".

In reporting done by Mario Bartel of Freshnet News, he broke the story yesterday about the hockey and lacrosse teams, noting that the school had already planned to scuttle the varsity softball, golf, and outdoor track and field teams "as U Sports doesn’t have national championships for those sports". It seems the scalpel that SFU is using to get its budget back in order doesn't just end with non-championship sports as the Red Leafs men's hockey program looked like a potentially-viable option for Canada West men's hockey.

The madness in all of this is that Canada West and U SPORTS are shooting themselves in their respective feet by forcing SFU to pay fees to rejoin the two sporting bodies. Bartel reports that "the move back to U Sports will save $850,000 annually. But the one-time application costs for the new affiliation will cost the school up to $990,000" which makes absolutely zero sense when one considers that SFU's re-application can be amortized over a number of years, thereby guaranteeing better health of their athletic teams and ensuring their commitment to the conference is legitimate.

In looking at those numbers, though, I have a serious question: what is that money used for when it comes to the application costs? Shouldn't the application fees be as minimal as possible to allow more schools to compete at the U SPORTS and regional levels assuming they meet the educational requirements of U SPORTS participation? It's not like Canada West or U SPORTS is sinking that money into reducing costs for schools or building new infrastructure for their teams, so where does that million-dollar fee go?

Of course, no one will provide me with answers as to where those fees go besides into general coffers, so your guess is as good as mine. That's a whole other topic for another article one day, though.

If there's one thing that Canada West can use, it's tighter groups of teams rather than having nine teams spread out over four provinces. Travel is a significantly massive part of each program's budget each year, and having a better configuration for these ridiculous East and West Divisions would change that. If there were three teams in BC, they'd match the three teams in Manitoba and Saskatchewan, and the only teams who would need to switch divisions to make things work would be the Alberta teams. That won't happen now with this news.

Perhaps there will be a day where Simon Fraser University announces both a men's and women's hockey program for Canada West, but that day isn't even on the horizon at this point. I'd expect the players who are currently on the Red Leafs' roster to potentially look elsewhere for hockey opportunities now, and that will once again hurt Simon Fraser's enrolment numbers when one considers the number of athletes who are paying the price for SFU's financial situation.

If you were hoping for good news about Canadian university hockey growth, there is none here today. The Red Leafs are done as far as high-level competition is concerned, and their only team will continue to play in the BCIHL where costs are kept relatively low in comparison. And if we're ever to arrive at a ten-team Canada West conference, we need another team in BC to balance the conference.

As it stands, the nine current teams won't have to worry about trips to Burnaby next season or at any time in the future, apparently.

Until next time, keep your sticks on the ice!