Data suggest WHL can afford minimum wage, lawyers say

CALGARY — Financial numbers divulged by WHL teams fail to stickhandle the clubs’ arguments they can’t afford to pay players a minimum wage, lawyers behind a possible class action suit testified Thursday.

They said disclosures of data were at times incomplete, some lacked sufficient detail and in other instances cast clear doubt on the clubs’ insistence paying players would bankrupt them.

“From the Portland Winter Hawks, all we received were two tax returns. We don’t have financial statements,” said lawyer Ted Charney.

One of tax returns from the WHL club listed total income of just over $5.4 million, and taxable income of minus $192,000. Charney questioned many of the listed expenses.

One detailing $382,000 in payments to team officers “is a good example of an expense not to justify paying the minimum wage,” said Charney.

The lawyer said it would cost each team about $300,000 to provide their players a minimum wage.

The lawyers are waging a $180-million suit naming the WHL, Ontario Hockey League and the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League, its respective clubs and the Canadian Hockey League.

But the players must first certify a class action which their lawyers say has attracted the interest of more than 400 former and current CHL athletes.

The leagues and their teams say paying a wage would bankrupt some of its clubs, a third of which they contend lose money. They also argue teams pay millions a year for players’ scholarships and serve to prepare them for the NHL.

But Charney said other records provided in a report prepared by Smith Forensics Inc. show a credibility gap with the contention teams would lack solvency in compensating players beyond a weekly stipend that typically amounts to $60 a week.

The Prince George Cougars claim losses of $620,000 in 2012 and $760,000 in 2014, yet the team was sold in 2014 for $6.4 million.

“There doesn’t seem to be a correlation between losing money and the value of the teams,” said Charney.

And he noted the Edmonton Oil Kings claimed to have spent $281,000 on meals and entertainment in 2016, though not any of it on its players, according to the documents.

The certification hearing is expected to conclude next Wednesday.