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 the city of Greater Sudbury.
The Burgess family is actually the longest
serving owners in the Ontario Hockey League, a fact he's
damn proud of.
Â"It's been a great run,Â" said Burgess
recently. Â"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.Â"
Burgess has his fair share of good and bad
memories, as does almost any Wolves' fan.
Â"I think my favourite highlight of all those
years was is in 1992,Â" said Burgess. Â"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.Â"
The league and the dynamics of the OHL has
changed since the Burgess family took the reins of the
franchise.
Â"It's become a big business,Â" said
Burgess. Â"Not that it never was, but you look at franchises
years ago 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 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 benefit to the players has
certainly changed and staff itself. 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.Â"
Burgess has no immediate desire to sell the
Wolves.
Â"No I have no immediate plans to sell the
Wolves,Â" said Burgess emphatically. Â"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.Â"