Rangers score record revenue of $6.5M
KITCHENER — It was a record year for the Kitchener Rangers.
The Ontario Hockey League team collected a franchise-high $6,457,278 in total revenues for the 2015-16 regular season.
That’s a slight increase — about $100,000 — from the previous season, but maintaining the returns is getting harder on East Avenue.
“Our real challenge is that are revenues have topped out,” said governor and chief operating office Steve Bienkowski, who disclosed the financials at the team’s annual general meeting at the Aud Monday night.
“That’s a challenge across the league.”
The Rangers still managed to pull in $163,498 in profit when playoff revenues were added to the mix. That surplus is an increase of about $67,000 from last season and helps the club finish in the black for the 21st consecutive campaign.
The numbers would have been a lot leaner without $638,194 earned — $322,073 in surplus — from playoff revenues. The Rangers defeated the Windsor Spitfires in five games to open the post-season before being swept by the London Knights in the second round.
“We don’t have to grow it (revenues), we just have to cover our expenses,” said Bienkowski. “But what you don’t want to do is get yourself into a position where you can’t commit to support the community in as wide of a way as you have been.”
Kitchener continued to pay down long-term debt created by a $10.6 million loan taken out to refit the Aud with new seats, concessions and a press box, among other things, back in 2012.
The club still owes about $8.2 million to the City of Kitchener and the TD Bank for those updates, but will reduce its total long term debt to $7,490,000 this season.
More than half of the $1.7 million score clock and ribbon board system added last year has already been paid off.
When all the debts are cleared the Rangers plan to sock some money away for inevitable future repairs and/ or a new arena. Some income from suite rentals will also be steered toward the club in a year.
Team swag continues to be a hot seller as the club took in $447,733 in retail sales, which is increase of about $80,000 over last season.
The spike is due to a deal that saw the team receive royalties on Rangers gear sold at Campus Crew in Fairview Park Mall.
“It was a good deal for us as a brand,” said Bienkowski. “And we made a little bit of money on it.”
The Rangers continue to be generous with their dough and donated just more than $370,000 to the community with about half that amount going to minor hockey organizations.
Scholarship commitments to current and past players stand at $1.2 million, though that number can shrink if players sign professional contracts or don’t enrol as a full-time student at a post-secondary institution within 18 months of graduating from the league.
About 130 season ticket subscribers attended the meeting and were told the team won’t bid for the 2018 Memorial Cup.
General manager Murray Hiebert and new head coach Jay McKee also talked to the crowd about the upcoming season.
Kitchener’s training camp begins Wednesday at the Aud, while the team takes on the Mississauga Steelheads in its first exhibition game Sunday at home at 2 p.m. A fan fest precedes the tilt by three hours.
Regular season single game tickets also went on sale Monday at the Aud, Centre in the Square and online.
STATS MAN HIRED: The Rangers have added some more brains to the club, by hiring Will Sibley as new their new video coach and statistical analyst. He’s a Wilfrid Laurier University graduate, who has worked with the Waterloo Wolves midget program as an assistant and goalie coach. He also tended goal for the Mississauga St. Michael’s Majors, Waterloo Siskins, Listowel Cyclones and for the Golden Hawks. He runs Control the Crease Goaltending, a yearround goalie school and he replaces former stats guy Jordan Bean, who was hired by the NHL’s Toronto Maple Leafs.