Sale of Acadie-Bathurst Titan imminent, league says

While an official announcement isn't expected anytime soon, it appears the Acadie-Bathurst Titan of the Quebec Maritime Junior Hockey League will be moving to St. John's.

The team, which has called Bathurst home since moving from Laval in 1998, will likely move to Newfoundland and Labrador, according to several hockey insiders.

"At the QMJHL [board of governors] meeting this week expect a vote to pass on the sale and relocation of the Acadie-Bathurst Titan to a group in St. John's," Jeff Marek wrote on X, breaking the news.

The team has been seeking new owners, hiring firm Ernst & Young earlier this year to conduct the search. 

Adding to speculation, Newfoundland and Labrador has made legislative changes to allow for the return of major junior hockey to the province.

Representatives from the team declined to comment on a possible sale and relocation, and directed inquiries to the league.

League spokesperson Raphaël Doucet said all meeting content is confidential but the, "sale process of the Titan, which has been ongoing since January 2024, is coming to an end."

"No announcement will [be] made today and nobody at the league will be made available."

'You didn't see huge crowds'

While no official announcement is expected, the writing is on the wall, according to Jamie Tozer, a hockey reporter with the blog Station Nation who covers the Saint John Sea Dogs and the league in general.

"When they won the Presidents Cup and they won the Memorial Cup, even those years, you didn't see huge crowds during those seasons," said Tozer. 

"I think just the fact that Bathurst is so small, I think it's a struggle in those down years to kind of get steady crowds to make this team financially viable. And it's unfortunate, but I think that that's kind of just the state of junior hockey."

Tozer expects the team and the league to hold off as long as possible on announcing the move, he said.

"I don't think you want to have a franchise playing its second half of the season kind of knowing that it's relocating," said Tozer.

Fans speak out

Rumours about the team's future have left some fans feeling uneasy.

Ed MacDermaid, a member of a citizens' group trying to keep the team in Bathurst, said he understands that businesses have to make money, and he admits the team has had issues with attendance.

But he also said even big-market teams like Saint John and Moncton have difficulty filling their arenas and he believes the owners should have done more to raise the profile of the Titan.

"It was never promoted the way that it needs to be promoted," said MacDermaid. 

"Moncton is in the paper constantly. Saint John is in the paper constantly," he said. "Like any business, you have to promote your product … we failed to do that."

George Willit, who said he worked with the team for 12 years, told Radio-Canada he thinks a lack of support in the area means the team will go.

"I don't think the support is in Bathurst, the peninsula, I don't think it's here," he said.

Leaving home

The team has long said it would remain in the region and as recent as January, team president Serge Thériault hinted they were in it for the long haul.

"There could be no better home for a Quebec Maritimes Junior Hockey League team, than northern New Brunswick," said Thériault in an article posted on the team's website when it announced it had hired Ernst & Young.

The article also said the objective of the ownership search was "keeping the team in northern New Brunswick."  

The city of Bathurst has also spent a fair amount of money to keep the team in the region.

The city owns the arena the Titan play in, the K. C. Irving Regional Centre, and in 2021 announced $175,000 in grants to the team.

"The City of Bathurst has been a proud partner of the Acadie-Bathurst Titan since 1998," said Kim Chamberlain, mayor of Bathurst, when the grants were announced.

"With the positive economic and tourism spinoffs, it is important for the team to stay right here."

In an email to CBC News, a spokesperson for the City of Bathurst said they would "not be commenting on this file at this time. We will determine our approach once there is clarity on the team's future."

St. John's has a checkered past when it comes to hockey. The city has hosted AHL, ECHL and QMJHL teams in the past, all of which relocated or folded.

And moving to St. John's would mean additional travel time for other teams, with the leagues farthest-west team, Rouyn-Noranda, more than 2,000 kilometres away.

Still, Tozer said, there's optimism this team would work out in St. John's.

"I think a lot of people now in St. John's have kind of realized that they need to … work together here to make something work if they want to have high level hockey in St. John's," he said.

Future in Bathurst

Despite attendance issues, the Titan performed where it counts, on the ice. The team is currently ranked seventh in the league and won the league's President's Cup twice and the Memorial Cup once, in 2018.

MacDermaid said if the team does leave it will be a bittersweet final game, which he will of course attend.

The memory that will stand out most in his mind will be the 2018 Memorial Cup campaign, he said.

"It was unbelievable," said MacDermaid.

"I remember standing at the airport with my family and the plane arriving from the west. And there must have been probably as many people there as go to the games now."

As for the future of hockey in Bathurst, Tozer said a smaller league, like the Maritime Hockey League, would make sense, but he wouldn't bet on a return of the QMJHL.

"It's not impossible, but I think the way things are shaped right now, it seems like it's a long ways off, if it'll ever happen," said Tozer.