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"I think it's a battle worth ghting," he
says. "Having some kind of professional
basketball team in the Lower Mainland is
fantastic. I think it's really good that it's
located in the Fraser Valley, and I'm hope-
ful that people will go out and watch and
support them. I know I will. I have kids that
love playing basketball, and I'll take them
out whenever I can to watch those games."
Out of the Heat
and into the re
Abbotsford Mayor Henr y Braun is
also looking forward to attending the
Bandits matches. He already has four
season tickets and plans to take his grand-
children to the Abbotsford Centre as much
as possible.
Braun, a councillor when the City
decided to terminate its deal with the Heat,
was rst elected mayor in 2014, the same
year that team left. (He won another elec-
tion last fall.) His stance on the Heat and pro
sports in the Valley helped him defeat may-
oral incumbent Bruce Banman.
"I said, 'It's going to take a $5.5-million
cheque to get out of an agreement that's
going to cost us $10 million if they stay
another ve years,' and for me as a busi-
nessperson, that was not a very hard
choice," says the former co-owner, presi-
dent and
CEO of railway giant Paci'ic
Northern Rail Contractors Corp. "We took
some •ak. There were some hockey fans
that weren't happy about it. But we have to
look at the greater interest of the commu-
nity and say, 'This isn't working; we have
to do something di˜erent,' and we've now
done that."
He's referring to the city's New Game
stratešy, designed in 2014 to make the cen-
tre, which was propped up by taxpayer
subsidies to the tune of $7.5 million over the
Heat's ve-year existence, protable.
Numbers aren't yet in for 2018, but
2017 saw Abbotsford taxpayers throw
$883,000 in subsidies toward the centre,
which has 300 club seats, 15 boxes and
20 private suites. And while Braun still
hopes the city will get another hockey
team—he talked to the Canucks before
the National Hockey League club signed
a six-year extension in December to keep
its farm squad in upstate New York with
the Utica Comets—he says it won't come at
the expense of the taxpayer.
"Quite frankly, [the Comets] would
come here if we were to subsidize them,"
he maintains. "And my response was that I
made a commitment when I ran for mayor
in 2014 that I would do everything I could
to attract a professional sports team, but I
didn't want it to cost the residents of the
"BASKETBALL IS HUGE IN THE FRASER VALLEY AND IN VANCOUVER.
IT'S ON A MAJOR UPWARD CURVE. SO ONE, YOU'RE GOING TO
ATTRACT THE BASKETBALL FANS, BECAUSE YOU'RE PUTTING A
PRO TEAM THERE. BUT YOU'RE ALSO GOING TO ATTRACT THOSE
PEOPLE THAT ARE GOING TO COME FOR A NIGHT OUT"
–Lee Genier, president and
COO, western operations, Canadian Elite Basketball League
PLAY BALL
(Clockwise from right)
The Bandits get a grip on
their first season; coach
Peter Guarasci faces the
media; the 7,000-seat
Abbotsford Centre
