Growlers owner to make announcement Tuesday on 'the future of the team'
Owner Dean MacDonald, frustrated with lease negotiations, mum on whether ECHL franchise is leaving St. John's
With the ECHL champion Newfoundland Growlers yet to come to a lease agreement at its current home — Mile One Centre in St. John's — the owner of the franchise has confirmed he'll be making an announcement Tuesday.
Asked Saturday afternoon about a report on Newfoundland sports website the Sports Page that the 2019-20 season will be the team's last in St. John's, MacDonald wouldn't say.
"We'll be laying out the future of the team on Tuesday," he told CBC News.
The Growlers won the ECHL championship in June in their inaugural season, but the off-season hasn't been as rosy.
In July, MacDonald said the team didn't turn a profit and accused the city of not taking seriously a proposal from the Growlers and St. John's Edge running the arena and convention centre.
In late August, MacDonald and Growlers chief operating officer Glenn Stanford visited an arena under construction in Trois-Rivières, Que., telling the St. John's Telegram that the the organization had "had it" with lease negotiations, and that the City of St. John's "doesn't value the economic impact of the teams in addition to the entertainment value they bring."
MacDonald said then the team was exploring alternatives to Mile One.