Sale shaking up BCHL rivalries
Any debate as to who the Penticton Vees biggest rivals are will soon be put to rest. The Vees are about to lose their closest geographic rival with the West Kelowna Warriors poised to relocate to North Delta before the 2017-18 season, returning to the Lower Mainland after moving from Langley to the Okanagan 11 years ago.
Penticton and West Kelowna formed a fierce rivalry over the years, though not quite at the level of the one forged between the Vees and Vernon Vipers over 50-plus years and counting in the B.C. Hockey League.
The Vees have essentially owned the Warriors in head-to-head matchups over the 11 seasons, though the Warriors finally had their day when they upset the Vees in six games in last year’s Interior final on the way to winning the BCHL and national championships.
Yet in spite of winning the holy grail of junior-A hockey in Canada, the Warriors simply couldn’t make a go of it in West Kelowna, hemorrhaging cash to the tune of roughly $300,000 a season and averaging less than 1,000 fans.
Mark Cheyne — the highly respected Warriors owner — recently sold the team he originally bought in 2009, and the league ultimately will have little choice but to approve the relocation.
Clearly, West Kelowna is a market that was not going to work long-term.
What will the imminent relocation of the Warriors mean to the Vees? Separated by a stretch of about 45 kilometres on Highway 97, it’s certainly a loss of a great travel partner and natural rival.
Fans of both teams helped fill the other’s buildings; at times it seemed like West Kelowna’s greatly outnumbered travelling faithful made as much noise at the South Okanagan Events Centre as Vees supporters did. It made for a great atmosphere.
Of course, the Vees put well over 2,000 fans in the pews practically every home game, regardless of the opponent. It will be disappointing to lose that natural rival in West Kelowna, but by no means devastating.
The Vees are an integral part of this community’s fabric; the organization, the program and the tradition is arguably the best in the country. Life will go on.
The Warriors had a decent following in a competitive hockey market. It’s difficult to imagine the BCHL returning there in the foreseeable future.
Assuming the Warriors leave for North Delta (and undoubtedly the Mainland Division), it would make sense to shift the Wenatchee Wild to the Interior Division, where one could argue they should have been situated all along after joining the BCHL in 2015-16.
The Wild has a strong fan base and a terrific building, dovetailing nicely with what Penticton boasts. It’s around 292 kilometres from Penticton to Wenatchee but, that distance aside, it has the chance to become a great rivalry.
Of course, the league has plenty of other question marks going forward in terms of geography and franchise stability.
For starters, the Nanaimo Clippers will likely either fold or be forced to relocate if a new arena is built and a Western Hockey League team arrives in the Vancouver Island city.
It will be interesting to see how things play out in the next few years, but it appears to be a safe guess that the Warriors won’t be the last franchise to be on the move in what is, for now, a 17-team league.
David Crompton is a sports reporter at the Penticton Herald.