No Offer Coming For Lakers, Reportedly Over Fear Of Losses From Fire

According to the Wallaceburg Lakers, no offer has been made for the Junior C hockey team, and the only interested group has withdrawn their interest due to fear over losses from the recent fire at Wallaceburg Memorial Arena.

“They will not be putting in an offer, because they’re afraid they will have to buy new jerseys after the fire,” Wallaceburg Lakers President and Assistant General Manager Darryl Lucio told CKSN. Lucio is also part of the Lakers’ ownership group.

According to Lucio, a group fronted by local resident Rob Knight expressed their interest in the team, but ultimately decided not to put in an offer for the team. A formal offer was originally expected to be made at the start of this week.

“If someone wants to purchase a hockey team that badly, then hopefully a few jerseys wouldn’t get in the way,” said Lucio.

Meanwhile, the Lakers are continuing to regroup after a failed bid to relocate the team to Tilbury this year.

The team held a spring camp in Chatham at the end of April, which Lucio called a success.

“We had a good camp, we had some good players out, we had about 50 in total, and some good prospects there, some positive surprises, and we’ll have a bunch of them back for main camp,” Lucio explained.

The camp however, came only days after the fire, which Lucio said presented some challenges.

“It was tough, two days before camp we had a fire and lost everything we had, but we’ll get up and keep going.”

Last season the Wallaceburg Lakers finished with a 1-37-0-2 record.