Junior Hockey Teams Now Making Players Pay To Play:

This has nothing to do with the Vernon Vipers or the BCHL but I thought this was a very interesting and good article.  I found a link to this article on Gregg Drinnan's Blog.  The OJHL will now be charging players to play.  It is suggested it would likely be between $3,000 and $4,000 for next season.  Will we see this in the BCHL or through out the rest of the Junior A Teams across Canada in the future? 

This was on theSpec.com website:

OJHL teams to make players pay-to-play

May 17, 2013  

League says rising costs forcing their hand, but players getting value

Fans won't be the only ones paying to get into Ontario Junior Hockey League games next season.

Players will be, too, after the junior A loop — which also includes the Burlington Cougars and Hamilton Red Wings — recently removed a bylaw that prevented teams from making players pay to suit up for an OJHL franchise.

A formal announcement of the change in policy has yet to be made by the OJHL, but league officials have confirmed to the Oakville Beaver that teams will have the right to choose what fee their players will pay, with no maximum imposed on the amount. Oakville Blades general manager Duncan Harvey said his squad has yet to determine how much it will charge, but suggested it would likely be between $3,000 and $4,000 for the upcoming year — in addition to the $300 players already pay to the Ontario Hockey Association and $750 to the OJHL.

"The problem we have is that we have three very different distinctive business models in this league. You have your small towns like Wellington, you have more rural communities, and then you have the (Greater Toronto Area). Having one model for everybody, you can't really do it," said OJHL commissioner Marty Savoy. "We need to let the onus be on the teams themselves to decide how to operate their businesses."

And business in recent years has not been good for OJHL owners. Savoy believes no franchise in the league turned a profit this past season. Losses for some teams are believed to be as high as six figures.

"The problem is this model," Harvey said. "The model is based on $60 an hour for ice and $10 wood sticks. We're paying $150 a stick and every kid needs six sticks (a league minimum for teams to provide players). Throughout the course of a season, if you carry 26 guys, that's a big chunk of money. Plus, paying $250 an hour for ice, you practise for one-and-a-half hours and your game ice is $750, it adds up pretty quickly.

"Plus, we have to pay our coaching staff and equipment guy. Our budget is nothing crazy, about $300,000. But there's nothing coming in."

Paid attendance remains a major issue for the OJHL, particularly in the GTA. Even though the Blades drew the most fans in the league, averaging nearly 600 per contest, many of those tickets were free.

"We're only pulling in roughly $1,200 on a game night. That's just enough to pay for our game night," said Harvey, who dropped ticket prices this past season in his first year as Oakville's GM. "That doesn't cover any of our practices, staff, equipment or anything else."

Another challenge the OJHL faces is the lack of subsidy from higher leagues. According to Harvey, OJHL teams receive $1,500 from Ontario Hockey League squads when they develop a player who moves on to the OHL. But OJHL teams, according to Harvey and Savoy, do not receive any reimbursement from colleges or even from the National Hockey League when players graduate to those levels.

"We're operating at around $8,000 a player. That's our cost. He plays with us, we train him up. … If he gets a scholarship — a full-ride, $50,000-value-a-year scholarship — we get back nothing, " Harvey said. "Apparently that's OK."

Might players leave for other leagues?

The OJHL's case for charging players seems clear. But how will players respond to having to pay for something they and their predecessors have always enjoyed for free?

"It's kind of a turnoff to return to that league, because it used to be free, and every year I've noticed the costs going up and up and up," said Len Fabbri, a three-year OJHL veteran, who played last season for the Blades.

"It's definitely discouraging, especially for the older guys," he added. "The younger guys are used to paying to play. But us older guys feel like we paid our dues and we can use all the help we can get."

It's not as though players don't have options. The Greater Ontario Junior Hockey League, a junior B circuit in southwestern Ontario, does not charge its players. Perhaps implementing a pay-to-play structure in the OJHL will result in a mass exodus to the GOJHL, which Savoy admits is "the strongest junior B loop in the country by far."

Savoy, meanwhile, is confident that players will continue to choose the OJHL because of the exposure they receive.

"I don't think kids want to risk not being evaluated and seen by scouts. We've gone from 37 teams to 23 teams (due to contraction that began in 2009), and our number of Division 1 rides has stayed the same," Savoy said.

"If you're a kid looking to move on to the next level, you'll still play in this league. If you're not, maybe you'll go to junior B."

The numbers back up Savoy's claim. According to league statistics from the 2011-12 season, 85 OJHL alumni played for NHL clubs during the 2010-11 campaign. Another 140 OJHL grads played for NCAA Division 1 squads and 165 suited up at the Canadian Hockey League major junior level.

Savoy also justifies the pay-to-play model by pointing to quality assurances that will be imposed on teams next season. The league recently performed a 110-point audit on all its member franchises, ensuring minimum standards for all clubs to follow. Those requirements come with a significant price tag.

"The standards have now been set. The teams already know what they are. And there are costs associated with that," said Savoy, who was pleased the audit found the league's teams to be approximately 85 per cent compliant.

"Teams might have to practise two more times a week at $300 an hour. When you try to elevate standards to make a better product for the athlete, there's a cost. And to our owners' credit, they bought into these increases before these changes (to charge players)."

Oakville Beaver