Is the WHL coming to the Fraser Valley?
Posted March 19, 2016 10:35 am.
This article is more than 5 years old.
VANCOUVER (NEWS 1130) – The Vancouver Giants could be on the move but where will the WHL franchise land? Despite talks with Langley, Abbotsford’s mayor says that city hopes to be in the running.
If the team does decide to leave the confines of the Pacific Coliseum, Abbotsford’s mayor Henry Braun says that city is still looking for an anchor tenant for its arena which has been empty since 2014.
The former Calgary Flames’ farm team didn’t attract many fans but Braun says that won’t be an issue going forward. “I still meet some people who say they’ve never been in the arena and they’re not going to go into the arena because they didn’t vote for it. But I’m hearing less and less of that and I think with a new team coming in that people would be surprised with the fan support that they would get in Abbotsford.”
“We have reached out to the league and would of course welcome the Giants or anyone else to come and speak with us about calling Abbotsford home. That’s been an ongoing discussion. We would love to have obviously a hockey team [at the arena], that’s what it was built for.”
But he says the city won’t subsidize any team like it did with the AHL’s Heat, a deal that cost the city millions.
