BY SCOTT HUNTER HADDOW
After 18 years of owning the Sudbury Wolves,
the fire still burns brightly inside Marc Burgess to bring a
championship to Greater Sudbury.
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Marc Burgess' family are the
longest serving owners of a team in the Ontario Hockey
League. |
The Burgess family is actually the longest
serving owners in the Ontario Hockey League, a fact he's damn
proud of.
"It's been a great run," said Burgess
recently. "My dad bought the team in November of 1986 and with
recent sales in Oshawa and Belleville, we are now the longest
serving owners in the league. In one sense it's exciting, but
in the other sense, the reality sets in and maybe I am getting
old, but the family still enjoys it. We are still big
supporters and we want to stay in it until we win a
championship. It's been 18 years of trying, but hey who knows,
maybe it will be this year or the next one."
Burgess has his fair share of good and bad
memories, as does almost any Wolves' fan.
"I think my favourite highlight of all those
years was is in 1992," said Burgess. "We had won our first
playoff round in probably 10 years. We were down three games to
one against Oshawa in the first round of the playoffs. We had
Terry Chitaroni, Glen Murray, Jason Young and a bunch of other
great kids that played for us that year. We came back and Glen
had scored four goals in Oshawa, we won the game 5-4 and we
came back here and won the series at home in overtime. It was
like we won the Stanley Cup. We were all out on the ice hugging
the players. We got swept in the next round, but for that
moment, at that point and time, it was certainly the happiest
time for me. My dad and I were on the ice hugging. It was
a
wonderful time. We will look for more of
those times hopefully."
The league and the dynamics of the OHL have
changed since the Burgess family took the reins of the
franchise.
"It's become a big business," said Burgess.
"Not that it never was, but you look at franchises years ago
and they were $750,000, that's what we paid for it. Oshawa and
Belleville and Barrie sold for $6 million (combined). It's been
an interesting business with dealing with the players and the
contracts. I think the players are treated a lot better than
they were 20 years ago, not to say they were treated poorly
before, but now education is taken more seriously, both while
they are here and after hockey. Our contract obligations don't
end when they are done here. In a lot of cases we pay tuition,
room and board and books for their university education. The
benefits to the players have certainly changed and the number
of staff too. We used to run a team with one coach and couple
of scouts, now we have a full time staff of 12 to 14
people."
Burgess has no immediate desire to sell the
Wolves.
"No I have no immediate plans to sell the
Wolves," said Burgess emphatically. "Somebody asked me 12 years
ago if we would ever sell the team and I said if and when I
have a daughter and she turns 15, I would sell the team. She's
only 11 now, so we still have a few more years to go."
Wolves' governor and director of hockey
operations Blaine Smith has worked with Burgess for 10 years.
They have developed a strong bond, and Smith admires Burgess'
passion.
"He's well respected in the community and
around the OHL," said Smith. "He's very passionate. There's a
lot of ups and downs to owning a franchise, and what I admire
most about him is he's been very undeterred in reaching his
goal, which is to win a championship for the community.
Through all the ups and downs, he has always
maintained a positive outlook."
Smith most remembers the time the Burgess
family received their first division championship banner.
"We were at the OHL summer meetings and Marc
and his family were presented with the banner. It was the first
one they had won since they had
bought the team, and there was a really sense
of pride in seeing that happen. We are hoping there will be
more of those."
