Queens Place ice surface. Photo Ed Halverson

The team announced on June 29 that they would be leaving Liverpool and a week later staff at the Lunenburg County Lifestyle Centre posted to social media that Jim Bottomley is bringing Junior B hockey to the LCLC.

Owner Jim Bottomley says travel time for the coaches and players and the opportunity to increase the fanbase were the main reasons for moving the team from their home at Queens Place in Liverpool.

Bottomley encourages his hockey players to be student athletes which means most of the team lives in and around Halifax to be close to their universities. He says relocating to Bridgewater will make a big difference in the amount of time the players need to spend on the road, especially during the winter months.

For the past ten years the Liverpool Privateers have built a competitive team and a devoted fanbase and Bottomley hopes that support will follow the team a half an hour up Highway 103.

“That’s our biggest loss is the fans were so supportive down there and since they announced the move, I’ve heard from a number of fans that said you can still count on us coming up [to Bridgewater] so I’m looking forward to that,” said Bottomley. “But we had the best fans in the junior, Nova Scotia junior Hockey League over the last number of years and we’re just hoping that it will continue right there in Bridgewater. It’s going to be a South Shore team so hopefully everybody along the shore there will come and support us.”

Head coach Ryan Faulkenham and the rest of his staff will be staying on.

Bottomley says a few players from Bridgewater have suited up for the Privateers. He plans to expand those ranks by making his players and staff available to minor hockey organizations across the South Shore.

“If they want the players or coaches to come out anytime to work with their teams we’ll be there. We want to be involved in the community; we want the players out around the community.,” said Bottomley. “We want to basically a community team that’s well representitive throughout the whole South Shore, not just right in Bridgewater.”

One of the things that will remain constant in the move from Liverpool to Bridgewater is Bottomley’s desire to win.

“I think what Bridgewater lost in the last number of years was a quality hockey team that was competitive. You know I’m not in the business just to put a hockey team on the ice. I want to win every year I love winning and we’re going to try as the year goes on, we’ll continue to build our team,” said Bottomley.

The name of the new Bridgewater team is being kept under wraps until the official kick-off event at the LCLC on Thursday July 13 at 6:00pm.

Bottomley says there’s a great deal to organize and many plans to make before the hockey season opens September 15.

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Queens Place ice surface. Photo Ed Halverson

The Liverpool Privateers will not be returning to Queens Place in the fall.

The team made the announcement on their Facebook page Thursday afternoon and no reason was given for the sudden departure.

The news comes as a surprise after the Privateers announced on May 30, they would be back in Liverpool to play another season.

Screenshot of Facebook announcement by Liverpool Privateers Hockey Club. The post was taken down shortly after the team announced they would not be returning to Liverpool.

The Junior B hockey club has called Queens Place home for the past eight years.

The Region received notice from team owner Jim Bottomley late Monday night indicating they would be terminating their ice rental agreement effective June 27. Region of Queens Mayor Darlene Norman was surprised by the decision as the Region had recently come to terms with the team for the upcoming 2023-24 season.

Norman says there is plenty of demand for the weekly ice-rental time, but losing Junior B caliber hockey will be felt by the fans.

“It’s an unfortunate loss for the hockey fans that have supported that team. It was good hockey, certainly was well supported,” said Norman. “I think the players have always said they had the biggest fanbase they’ve ever had in this rink. So good luck to the team wherever they go.”

The Liverpool Junior B Hockey Association hosted the Don Johnson Cup in April, welcoming some of the best Junior hockey teams across the Atlantic provinces to Queens Place. By all accounts the event was a great success.

QCCR attempted to contact team officials for comment but did not receive a reply before publication.

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Region of Queens administration building

The Region of Queens is getting help from two levels of government with their bottom line.

The federally funded Nova Scotia Safe Re-start program is putting $590,735 into municipal coffers.

Mayor Darlene Norman said the funding is welcome as COVID-19 has upset this year’s budget plans.

“The bulk of the money will be going on the bottom line of this year’s budget in order to meet that projected budget,” said Norman.

The pandemic forced the region to stop operating many of the programs and facilities that make money including closing Queens Place for several months.

“There was no fitness memberships, there was no ice rentals, there were conferences that would’ve been booked there, so that’s lost revenue,” said Norman. “This money will help cover that lost revenue.”

The region estimates losses at Queens Place will be in the neighbourhood of $300,000 this year.

That number could go up as, since this funding was announced, another source of revenue for Queens Place has been shelved. The province has banned sports teams from travelling to and from Halifax. With many of their players coming from the city, the Liverpoool Privateers hockey games have been cancelled for now and with them goes the money that comes along with game nights.

According to Norman, Queens Place has never been profitable but the Region backstops the losses as part of the common good the facility brings to the community.

“Municipalities build these facilities for the social enjoyment, the physical enjoyment of people, to stimulate economic growth in your county, that’s what those are built for,” said Norman.

The Safe Re-start funding will also do some good in the community. As a condition of the funding, the province insisted a portion had to support local transit.

Queens County Transit is the beneficiary of that condition and will receive $27,674.

Another stipulation will see $2020 divided equally between the Nova Scotia Federation of Municipalities and the Association of Municipal Administrators. The two groups represent municipal interests to the provincial government and have also been unable to hold conferences, which would provide their funding, during the pandemic.

Norman said historically, the Region of Queens has a strong record of managing their finances and meeting their responsibility to the province to produce balanced budgets.

So much so, that even without this funding the municipality would have been okay.

“We would pay our bills. There’s no question of that,” said Norman. “Taking from reserves to meet that would probably be, I’m going to say the first time since amalgamation that that would have ever happened.””

Norman said the Safe Re-start funding should keep the region from dipping into their savings.

Reported by Ed Halverson 
E-mail: edhalversonnews@gmail.com
Twitter: @edwardhalverson