It’s official. The Salmon Arm SilverBacks are for sale.
General manager and minority owner Troy Mick told the BC Hockey League board of governors Monday that the Junior A franchise is “100 per cent for sale.”
“It means that for the last year or two years, people were thinking it was for sale, or not for sale – was Randy (Williams) going to sell? Now it’s public knowledge that he’s going to sell,” Mick told the Observer Tuesday.
Mick said players were aware at the start of the season this could happen, and the sale will not affect current operations.
“Definitely not, no – Randy, Terry (Williams) and I are committed to everything we’re doing so far and will continue to do until a new owner is found.”
Mick’s job now is to prepare information for investors and then make sure the sale is right for Salmon Arm.
“My goal right now is to get a great ownership group that can continue on with this franchise. That’s my biggest goal.”
When Mick joined the organization, the sale was part of the discussion.
“The idea coming in as minority owner was that I would get an ownership group to take over the team… I’m calling the people who have expressed interest in the past and investigating new leads. The biggest thing I want to stress, is it will make no difference this year to hockey operations.”
As for Mick’s involvement with the team, he says that will depend on the new owners.
“They’ve entrusted me with finding the next ownership group for the long-term good of this organization. That will take a lot of time, I care about this community tremendously. Whether I’m included or other people are included – right now everything’s on the table,” he says. “For me, there won’t be any strings attached. They might want to clean house. If they see what we’ve done over the last year, we hope not.”
His aim is to have a sale complete by April 1, 2013 and the transition to new owners by April 30.
“Obviously the intent is me getting my own ownership group in…,” he said, noting he doesn’t have the $1 million to $2 million needed to buy the franchise.
“It would be nice to find local investors to take over the team and, if not, an outside identity to continue on. This is a great franchise, people have been phenomenal. Obviously we’re reloading the sucker, continuing to make this the best program in the league, which it will be.”
