Rinse and Repeat….

Rinse and repeat… it could almost be the mantra for British ice hockey. A never ending cycle of the same situations, repeating themselves. And it seems as if no one ever learns the lessons of the past.

In the past week or so, it has come out that the Manchester Storm had quietly moved to a new ownership company and were liquidating the old one. This is known as “phoenixing” (oh, the irony of that term), and happens quite a lot in this sport. You run up debts, can’t repay them, so transfer the useable assets (i.e. team name, logo etc) to a new company and wind up the old one. Now, while this isn’t technically illegal, it is morally dubious at best. You’ve failed to run the business successfully. You owe money (usually a large amount) to various creditors. So you call in the liquidators, set up a CVL, and carry on under a newco as if nothing untoward has happened.

And it stinks. Even more so when you try to keep it quiet and hope no one notices.

Yet people are defending it. Hell, people are even praising the owner (Ryan Finnerty) for his actions. I’ve seen people say this will be “good for the club and the EIHL”, and they are serious about that thought.

Lets look at the facts here:

Finnertys previous company that owned and ran the Storm was gone into liquidation owing in the region of £165k. Some of that is a COVID loan they haven’t repaid. Some of it is owed to the Taxman (presumably VAT). And some to various supplier (who more fool them are now acting as suppliers to the newco).

He had his wife (!) set up a newco, and take on the oldcos place on the EIHL board. A “new minority partner” has also come in (who is suspiciously absent from all filing on companies house).

And this is all “fine”. Hell, I’ve been been asked why the debt is Finnertys fault… Erm, because he was running the business. The buck stops with him.

If you think its fine, or acceptable, then you are part of the problem.

Would it be allowed in football? Rugby? Any other so-called professional sport? No. No it would not. But British ice hockey?

Business as usual.

Rinse and Repeat.

Now, its been put to me that this is not really acceptable, but its the “only way a small club can stay competitive”. And I don’t buy that argument for a second. If the only way a club like the Storm (who love to boast about how great their attendance figures are, and how well they do for sponsorship) can remain an EIHL club and even be vaguely competitive (which truthfully they are not over the course of a season) is to bust themselves and restart the business every few years, then the entire model is broken.

There are 2 way to reset this, and many EIHL fans will not like either:

1: Make ticket prices reflect the outgoings. Sure, £20 is a lot, bit it’s clearly not enough to cover the costs. So up they go until they hit a point where they do, right?

or

2: Lower the “quality” of the player brought in. Lower quality means lower wages, which means lower costs.

But fans won’t accept either of those. The game is already “too expensive” for many, so a price rise is something no club will seriously consider right now. And “lower” quality players… well, that will supposedly make the games boring and turn fans off.

So, rinse and repeat.

The Storm aren’t the first club to do this. They won’t be the last. And that’s sad. Want the sport to survive? Even thrive? Fans have to demand better of their clubs owners. If it means a lowering of standards to ensure the sport continues, then lower the damn standards. Don’t keep things where they suit the minority of clubs. Set a level that works for the majority, and maybe, just maybe the sport can grow.