Lakers Post Statement, Tell Community To “Step Up”
“Now that the announcement has been posted by local news sources and the people have showed their delight.. step up and help out with keeping the Wallaceburg Lakers here! Volunteers help organizations like hockey teams get fans out to the games.. so once again the call is put out for bingo helpers (need to be trained in Chatham first), gathering sponsorships, filling game day tasks, and helping (not belittling the team) at the mini and main camps.. if this is something you want to do.. leave a message!!! This will tell if the Wallaceburg Lakers really belong in Wallaceburg. #communitysupport”
That was the statement released by the Wallaceburg Lakers on Facebook shortly after news broke regarding the team’s proposed move to Tilbury being denied by the OHA. The Lakers deleted the post minutes before 10pm on Friday.
After the initial post, local community members replied challenging the statement.
“To me I find this post very rude,” one person wrote. “You are pointing the finger at the community yet when the team was asked to support activities in our community like Remembrance Day or helping collect can goods door to door we could not get a response from the team, if you want the community to support you help support the community volunteer at things, BIA clean, Remembrance Day activities, WAMBO etc there are lots things a team could do to be an integral part of a community and then in return would receive the communities support no matter if you’re winning or losing.”
A back and forth ensued with multiple individuals, which culminated in the post being deleted approximately 3 hours after first being published.
Why are bingos done in Chatham when you have a bìñgp association in the wallaceburg community that need groups groups. The Lakers are in Wallaceburg not Chatham
Just the training is done in Chatham. I did it a few years ago and it was a one evening thing for a couple of hours. Not a huge deal but I get what you’re saying, the world seems to revolve around Chatham sometimes.
Because the Chatham Bingo is a charitable gaming center. Sports groups can make some real money to be able to do real things for their organizations by only committing 2 volunteers for 2 hours 3 times a month. It is a lot easier to find volunteers to do that then to commit to longer times and selling cards and whatnot that are traditinally part of working bingos for minimal return. WMBA also just recently started using the Chatham Gaming Center and it will make it much more possible to do things to improve their association.
I agree we have Wallaceburg bingos here
Less then 100 people were showing up to the games. That is unacceptable. Everyone that ran their mouth about the team leaving needs to show up to 50% of the games. You cant put a competitive team on the ice without fans there to support them. Its time for the community to step up or shut up!
Interesting, but not true.
The OJHL which is Ontario’s top Junior A loop averages very low attendance in some areas. Take the North York Rangers. One of the league’s top teams with an average of 103 fans per game. In fact 14 of the 22 teams in that league average less than 200 fans per game.
You’re saying a chicken or egg scenario here. I don’t think it’s you can’t have a winning team without fans, I think it’s you have less fans without winning. But even losing teams can pull in big crowds. There are way too many variables.
The wallaceburg lakers are a privately held hockey team. The owners make a profit off of ticket sales, sponsorships,etc. Since it is a for-profit business, the owners should not demand people volunteer their time to help to owners turn a possible profit. The owner demanding free labour from volunteers in order to keep the team in Wallaceburg is the same guy blaming the fans and basically ******** all of wallaceburg’s residents because the preference was to move the team to a completely different town.