Talks on a new contract have begun between the City of Charlottetown and the Eastlink Centre, as well as the arena’s two major tenants.
The contract with the city’s major sports facility and the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League’s Charlottetown Islanders and National Basketball League of Canada’s Island Storm expires at the end of the teams’ respective seasons.
Coun. Bob Doiron, chairman of the city’s economic development, tourism, arts and culture committees, said the arena and the two teams are all looking for support from the city.
“They have contracts, and we work with them to give them money to help out with expenses,’’ Doiron said.
Some concern was expressed at council’s regular public monthly meeting on Monday that the expiration of the contracts means the Islanders, Storm, the coaching staffs and the arena are all operating in limbo.
At present, the city has a $107,000 sponsorship agreement with the Islanders. The city also pays Eastlink Centre $50,000 a year for game day expenses for the Islanders and $50,000 a year to Eastlink Centre per year for game day expenses for the Storm.
All those figures are based on a three-year contract that expires this year.
The Eastlink Centre is operated by a board of directors, and that board negotiates with the Storm and Islanders on the city’s behalf.
“It’s the first of January. Our committee met and came up with some solutions as to what we can do, but we have to know how much money we can forward. I can’t sit here and tell you the exact amount of money that we give them but it’s the city’s money and we just can’t open the doors and say ‘here you go’. ’’
The new contract will need to be negotiated once Doiron’s committee makes a recommendation to council.
Doiron doesn’t foresee any problems.
“We had preliminary talks with them . . . we’re in contact with them. I think they’re happy to stay here and the city is happy to have them,’’ he said of the Islanders and Storm.
“They’re under contract until the end of this playing season so we have a couple of months to get our figures together, go to council, to committee of the whole and see what we’re going to do.’’
Doiron wouldn’t shed any light on what the arena or the two teams are looking for.
“Everybody wants more money and they have expenses and the city wants to keep them. We want to keep everybody happy but we only have a certain amount of money to go around.’’
Doiron said talks of a new arena, based on the report released last month, have not been a factor in the talks.
