Tecumseh Franchise Proceeds Under Protest From League
An appeal is being filed by several teams in the Great Lakes to keep their current 9 team format – Photo by Kelsey Vermeersch/ CKSN.ca
According to Lakeshore Canadiens general manager Mark Seguin, an appeal is ready to be filed to the OHF early next week, which is signed by several Great Lakes Junior C franchises, including his own Canadiens.
“It’s not Lakeshore against the league, it’s Lakeshore, Amherstburg, Essex, Wheatley, Blenheim, it’s everybody,” explained Seguin, who said the OHA has asked the appeal to be sent directly to the OHF for consideration.
According to Seguin, the OHA went about adding the new Tecumseh Junior C franchise without following the league’s constitution, and without a consideration for the viability of the league’s franchises.
“First we don’t feel the OHA followed our constitution,” explained Segiun regarding the grounds for the appeal by the league’s teams. “It has to be a unanimous vote and it wasn’t, and the league just overruled us. They’ve also done this in two other C leagues, and will be facing appeals in those cases as well.”
“Also, the quality of the product will be impacted, as we don’t believe there are enough players to keep our league viable and competitive,” continued the long time member of the Canadiens organization.
“Anytime the league has been 10 teams, we aren’t sustainable. We’ve worked hard for parity over the last several seasons, and we don’t want to go back to having five strong teams, and five very weak teams.”
The new Tecumseh Junior C team will move forward despite the pending appeal, as the team will announce their new name, and have a question and answer time for media following the event at Tecumseh Arena Friday in the Centre Ice Room.
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