Bulldogs moving to Brantford for three years

Mayor is hopeful Hamilton club will stay there after FirstOntario Centre makeover is complete

The Hamilton Bulldogs are heading to Brantford.

For three years, anyway.

They’ll be known as the Brantford Bulldogs for the next three years.

The long-rumoured temporary move — pending approval from Brantford council, which is expected to arrive on Feb. 7 — will see the Ontario Hockey League team set up shop in Wayne Gretzky’s hometown this fall while the renovation of FirstOntario Centre is underway.

As part of the Hamilton Bulldogs’ upcoming move to Brantford during renovations to FirstOntario Centre, the Telephone City will pay $3 million toward upgrades on its 56-year-old arena and the Ontario Hockey League team will pay several million more.

Then, if the Bulldogs decide to leave at the end of the three-year agreement, they’ll repay that $3 million.

“It feels right when I go to the rink and I see the sign that says ‘403 Hamilton Brantford,’ ” says Bulldogs owner Michael Andlauer. “If we’re not welcome to play in Hamilton, at least we can go to Brantford.”

The Dave Andreychuk Mountain Arena was the only possible option in Hamilton but Andlauer says the tiny building isn’t acceptable for this level of hockey in 2023.

“The league wouldn’t allow it,” he says.

He also considered Brampton, following the lead of the Canadian Elite Basketball League’s Hamilton Honey Badgers, who moved there a couple months ago, but decided against that, as well.

In the final four years the Battalion called the Powerade Centre home (2009-10 to 2012-13 before moving to North Bay), the team finished last in attendance, twice averaging below 2,000 fans a game.

This will still be a challenge for the Bulldogs, though. Because, with the move to Brantford, Andlauer’s team is going from the largest arena in the OHL to what will be the smallest. And one of the oldest.

The just-under-3,000-seat Brantford and District Civic Centre was built in 1967 and, while new seats were installed a few years ago, much remains intact from that time.

“The scoreboard is circa 1967,” he says. “The concessions are none.”

That last part isn’t entirely true. There are some concession stands but nowhere near what’s acceptable for the OHL. As a result, he says both he and the city will be putting money into the place to bring it close to today’s league standards.

It has supported a team before, though.

Back in 1978, the Hamilton Fincups moved down the highway to become the Brantford Alexanders, playing out of this building. They remained there for six years before returning to Hamilton as the Steelhawks. During that period, the franchise pumped out 29 future NHLers including Ric Nattress, Allan Bester, Shayne Corson, Mark Hunter, Rick Wamsley and Bob Probert.

A couple months ago, as rumours of this move were swirling, the city’s mayor told the Brantford Expositor that it was about more than just being a temporary home.

“We would be given an opportunity which we have not had in years to demonstrate that we can support an OHL team,” Kevin Davis told the paper. “That’s the great opportunity in all of this.”

While construction of FirstOntario Centre is only supposed to take two years, Andlauer — who has publicly expressed his displeasure with the level of communication from those in charge of renovating it — thought adding a third to the deal would be prudent.

“I don’t anticipate this being done in two years,” he says.

Almost from the minute news broke in November that the team would be temporarily pushed out of its home, Brantford began wooing the franchise. And it wasn’t the only city doing so.

“I don’t have a commitment from (Hamilton) that I’m coming back,” says Andlauer.

“I don’t have a lease in front of me. I don’t even have a potential lease. I don’t have anything. I haven’t gotten anything.”

Davis met with Andlauer three times in person, including on a Saturday outside of work hours.

Seeing the chance to boost municipal morale and increase civic pride with a winning team — the Bulldogs have won two OHL championships in five years and an AHL championship in 2007 — as well as bringing economic benefits to the area, staff worked on the proposal through the Christmas holidays.

“You know it’ll be good for your city so you go after it as aggressively as you possibly can,” Davis says, sounding almost giddy at the prospect of landing a team, even for just a few years. “That’s what good mayors do.”

When his pitch for an arena at Lime Ridge Mall in Hamilton’s east end backed by $30 million of his own money was rejected — a decision Coun. Esther Pauls described at the time as “predestined” — he cited years of “empty promises” from the city.

“I haven’t heard boo from the city,” Andlauer says. “They may care but they certainly haven’t let me know that’s the case.”

Five years ago, his team’s banners were inexplicably taken down and left lying on the arena’s catwalk. They’re back up today but stuck off to the side where half the people can barely see them from their seats. Meanwhile, the Toronto Rock’s banners (from championships won elsewhere) hold the prime rafter positions.

“You would have thought after all the apologies about communication … I would have had something,” Andlauer says about a lease or even an outline of one. “But I haven’t received anything. So how am I to speculate if I’m coming back to Hamilton if I don’t have a commitment from somebody?”

“I hope that six years from now there will be an OHL team here in Brantford for the long term,” Davis says. “Could it be the Bulldogs? Well, I suppose that’s possible.”