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Wolves' owner still hungry after 18 years

BY SCOTT HUNTER HADDOW [email protected] 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.
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"



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