Is this the end of the Bulldogs in Hamilton?
As part of the Hamilton Bulldogs’ upcoming move to Brantford during renovations to FirstOntario Centre, the Telephone City will pay $3 million toward upgrades on its 56-year-old arena and the Ontario Hockey League team will pay several million more.
Then, if the Bulldogs decide to leave at the end of the three-year agreement, they’ll repay that $3 million.
Wait. If?
“I don’t have a commitment from (Hamilton) that I’m coming back,” says team owner Michael Andlauer. “I don’t have a lease in front of me. I don’t even have a potential lease. I don’t have anything. I haven’t gotten anything.”
Listening to him explain how things have played out — in the short and long term — you can’t help but be struck by the frankly stunning differences in the way the two cities have handled this situation.
Almost from the minute news broke in November that the team would be temporarily pushed out of its home, Brantford began wooing the franchise. And it wasn’t the only city doing so.
Mayor Kevin Davis met with Andlauer three times in person, including on a Saturday outside of work hours. Seeing the chance to boost municipal morale and increase civic pride with a winning team — the Bulldogs have won two OHL championships in five years and an American Hockey League title in 2007 — as well as bringing economic benefits to the area, staff worked on the proposal through the Christmas holidays.
“You know it’ll be good for your city so you go after it as aggressively as you possibly can,” Davis says, sounding almost giddy at the prospect of landing a team, even for just a few years. “That’s what good mayors do.”
Here in Hamilton?
“I haven’t heard boo from the city,” Andlauer says. “They may care but they certainly haven’t let me know that’s the case.”
This fits with a years-long pattern of seeming indifference toward him and his franchise by local leadership.
He’s kept a team here in town for two decades despite always losing money. Yet for years the arena had broken-down escalators and other embarrassing deficiencies. Things were so poor the Canadian Hockey League specifically cited the rink as the reason we couldn’t hold the 2018 Memorial Cup.
When his pitch for an arena at Lime Ridge Mall backed by $30 million of his own money was rejected — a decision Coun. Esther Pauls described at the time as “predestined” — he cited years of “empty promises” from the city.
Five years ago, his team’s banners were inexplicably taken down and left lying on the arena’s catwalk. They’re back up today but stuck off to the side where half the people can barely see them from their seats. Meanwhile, the Toronto Rock’s banners (from championships won elsewhere) hold the prime rafter positions.
Despite being a solid citizen and community leader whose foundation has pumped hundreds and hundreds of thousands of dollars into breakfast programs for children at 21 local high-needs schools and other projects — totalling $1 million last year alone — his arena lease was almost given to the Erie Otters a decade ago. His tenancy survived by just a single vote.
Then there was the all-time tonedeaf insult. Prior to a 2009 rally supporting Jim Balsillie’s bid to bring an NHL team to Hamilton (a move that would’ve pushed the Bulldogs out of town had it been successful), someone from the city actually asked the team to send their mascot to support the event.
On top of everything, he’s publicly expressed frustration at what he describes as being kept out of the loop on what’s going on with the FirstOntario Centre redo. Something he raised as recently as November.
“You would have thought after all the apologies about communication … I would have had something,” Andlauer says about a lease or even an outline of one. “But I haven’t received anything. So how am I to speculate if I’m coming back to Hamilton if I don’t have a commitment from somebody?”
Put it all together and he says he’s received more love and enthusiasm from Brantford officials in the span of a couple months than he has in his entire 20 years in Hamilton. So that if looms rather large. Brantford isn’t far from Hamilton, especially for those in the suburbs who could get there in not much more time than it would take to get downtown. The area feels safe. The civic centre has parking on site. It’s right next door to a casino.
If the building is always full once it’s upgraded and provides a great atmosphere, it could get pretty tempting for the owner to put down roots. Especially when combined with a sense of being wanted. On top of it all, the mayor doesn’t hide the fact that this isn’t just a threeyear investment for him. He wants a team permanently.
“I hope that six years from now there will be an OHL team here in Brantford for the long term,” Davis says. “Could it be the Bulldogs? Well, I suppose that’s possible.”
Oh, and for the record, they’ll be known as the Brantford Bulldogs for the next three years. So, when decision time comes in 2026, the branding will already be well established. Which could make sticking around even easier.
It all sounds rather ominous. The Honey Badgers basketball team has already left for Brampton. Who knows what the future holds for the Toronto Rock? If the Bulldogs are lured away, too, what then?
The people running the city might want to start taking this a little bit seriously. Maybe treat a man who’s made a huge contribution to this town with a little more respect. Maybe even get really crazy and show a little excitement about the product like Davis is.
Otherwise we might have a gleaming new downtown arena in a few years ... with a whole bunch of open dates on the calendar.
‘‘ I don’t have a commitment from (Hamilton) that I’m coming back. I don’t have a lease in front of me. I don’t even have a potential lease. I don’t have anything. I haven’t gotten anything.
MICHAEL ANDLAUER BULLDOGS OWNER