Meet The New Owners Event
- Thread starter Ook
- Start date
It was a fantastic night from start to finish, with the venue of a theatre inside the National Museum of Wales better than anything I can ever remember?
New owner Steve King was up first and after a standing ovation spoke a bit about himself. How he is a Calgary Flames season ticket holder and has been a volunteer working for them for several years. That his daughter is a figure skater and his two boys hockey players and he himself has been playing since he was 3 years old. He spoke briefly about his business and how they buy successful businesses and make them better and keep them for the dividends. The opposite to Ragan who bought failing businesses and then sold them on for a quick profit.
Kelman was up next and he re-iterated that he had no reason to leave Belfast other than the opportunity in Cardiff was too good to turn down. He then started to introduce the player signings we knew of starting with Tyson Marsh, which was accompanied by a video of him speaking from his home in Canada. One by one the British re-singings of Matt Myers, Mark Richardson, Luke Piggott, Chris Jones and Ben Bowns. Jake Morrisette was also confirmed as returning before Kelman confirmed that Dave Whistle would not be returning as coach. The team had to be run as a business and they felt at this time with the club still in the BBT it had to be a player-coach.
Neil Francis was confirmed as returning as Bench Coach, and during a brief speech also announced he would be Director of Hockey. Franny's last bit was to announce that the new Player-Coach would be Andrew Lord and that he had been their immediate and only choice. A video of Lord speaking from his home then followed.
Kelman stepped back up again and to the surprise of the audience announced we had a player signing that nobody knew about. A quick bio of Chris Culligan was then shown and after a clip of him scoring a PS another brief clip of him speaking from home was shown.
As if one surprise signing wasn't enough the also announced the capture of Joey Haddad. Again accompanied by a couple of goal clips and a short video of him speaking about his signing.
Kelman finished by saying that the prices of tickets and season tickets too high, that if they had taken over earlier they could have done a lot more with them but the best they could do was to scrap the increase in prices and let everyone pay the cheapest End Of Season price. The small number of fans who had paid the Early Bird price would get a refund in the difference.
They were able however to reduce the prices of the match day tickets from £17 to £15. They also explained they had come to an agreement with Ice Arena Wales whereby they would effectively be partners and share profits.
Kelman finished the evening thanking the supporters for their reception and asking for their help bringing back old fans/sponsors as well as encouraging new ones.
New owner Steve King was up first and after a standing ovation spoke a bit about himself. How he is a Calgary Flames season ticket holder and has been a volunteer working for them for several years. That his daughter is a figure skater and his two boys hockey players and he himself has been playing since he was 3 years old. He spoke briefly about his business and how they buy successful businesses and make them better and keep them for the dividends. The opposite to Ragan who bought failing businesses and then sold them on for a quick profit.
Kelman was up next and he re-iterated that he had no reason to leave Belfast other than the opportunity in Cardiff was too good to turn down. He then started to introduce the player signings we knew of starting with Tyson Marsh, which was accompanied by a video of him speaking from his home in Canada. One by one the British re-singings of Matt Myers, Mark Richardson, Luke Piggott, Chris Jones and Ben Bowns. Jake Morrisette was also confirmed as returning before Kelman confirmed that Dave Whistle would not be returning as coach. The team had to be run as a business and they felt at this time with the club still in the BBT it had to be a player-coach.
Neil Francis was confirmed as returning as Bench Coach, and during a brief speech also announced he would be Director of Hockey. Franny's last bit was to announce that the new Player-Coach would be Andrew Lord and that he had been their immediate and only choice. A video of Lord speaking from his home then followed.
Kelman stepped back up again and to the surprise of the audience announced we had a player signing that nobody knew about. A quick bio of Chris Culligan was then shown and after a clip of him scoring a PS another brief clip of him speaking from home was shown.
As if one surprise signing wasn't enough the also announced the capture of Joey Haddad. Again accompanied by a couple of goal clips and a short video of him speaking about his signing.
Kelman finished by saying that the prices of tickets and season tickets too high, that if they had taken over earlier they could have done a lot more with them but the best they could do was to scrap the increase in prices and let everyone pay the cheapest End Of Season price. The small number of fans who had paid the Early Bird price would get a refund in the difference.
They were able however to reduce the prices of the match day tickets from £17 to £15. They also explained they had come to an agreement with Ice Arena Wales whereby they would effectively be partners and share profits.
Kelman finished the evening thanking the supporters for their reception and asking for their help bringing back old fans/sponsors as well as encouraging new ones.
Great evening, everything totally positive, we now have a new beautiful home on the horizon, and new owners that every team in the UK would die for. Unbelievable evening, we have gone from floor to ceiling tonight, from the gutter to the moon and back. We totally have our club back with people who really care and who will deliver. Believe me Xmas has come early this year big time.
Happy Happy Hockey Days, truth to God.
Happy Happy Hockey Days, truth to God.
Wow what a night 
I said only a few weeks back on here I has never felt so low about our club but after tonight I've got to say I've never felt more pumped.What a turn around and if any fans can't see we have a massive future and don't back the club there must be something wrong.
Not seen so many happy fans in a long,long time and was great seeing some faces that had been away under Ragan.
We know how excited Todd is but Steve seemed genuinely thrilled to be involved too and what a nice ovation he got.
I won't sleep much tonight but thank you Franny,Todd,Mr King and Lordo for restoring my passion.I can't wait to get back to the BBT now.
I said only a few weeks back on here I has never felt so low about our club but after tonight I've got to say I've never felt more pumped.What a turn around and if any fans can't see we have a massive future and don't back the club there must be something wrong.Not seen so many happy fans in a long,long time and was great seeing some faces that had been away under Ragan.
We know how excited Todd is but Steve seemed genuinely thrilled to be involved too and what a nice ovation he got.
I won't sleep much tonight but thank you Franny,Todd,Mr King and Lordo for restoring my passion.I can't wait to get back to the BBT now.