Yorkton Terriers making financial comeback thanks to community support
Yorkton’s "Save the Terriers" ticket blitz fundraiser reached half of its goal this year, essentially saving the junior hockey team for another season.
Earlier in the month, the Terriers admitted the club was experiencing a financial crisis stemming from a lack of consistent fundraising efforts, a loss of revenue from season cancellations due to the pandemic, in addition to the accumulation of loan and credit card debt over the past few years.
However, the club was able to make a financial comeback after selling over 600 tickets for the 2024-2025 season.
“It’s been absolutely amazing, the community has come out, and drove, to buy tickets,” Director of Marketing for the Yorkton Terriers Calvin Tokarchuk explained.
“We’re actually over three times of how many [tickets] we sold for this current season, next year looks amazing.”
The fundraiser involved selling tickets for next year’s season for $200 each for single tickets and $400 each for a family pack. Every individual who purchased a ticket during the month of February had their name entered into a draw to win a travel voucher worth $4,000. The draw date was March 1.
“Originally the idea was to make sure that we can offer affordable tickets to absolutely everyone, because without fans playing hockey, it’s just playing hockey,” Tokarchuk said.
“We need the fans so we wanted to make sure we offered great value to our fans so they could be at the games. The other goal of the ticket blitz was to get to about 1,000 tickets sold so we could take a big hack out of the debt we’re currently in,” he added.
According to a statement from the team, it costs over $700,000 to operate the club per season.
Although the Terriers will be able to operate for the rest of this season and continue to run for next year’s, Tokarchuk said the club’s fundraising efforts are not nearly done.
"We are in a much better financial position than we were four and a half weeks ago. Again, we still have some work to do, a lot of work, and that's going to come in a way of fundraisers and other creative ideas to bring extra money into the arena,” he explained.
“Hopefully we continue to work on the product on the ice to better entertain the fans, and the product off the ice to say thank you to the fans."
Tokarchuk added that the Terriers will continue to work with other local community groups for new fundraising ideas.
“We’ve got a great fundraiser coming up it’s the celebrity sports dinner being put on by the Kinsmen on April 20,” he said.
“I’ve also heard some rumours about a ladies night coming up in the fall, potentially some concert type of things, and we’re also working on doing some other things potentially with the team, things like Chase the Ace, football drafts, stuff like that.”
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
Trudeau noncommittal on expanding rebate beyond 'working Canadians'
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau does not appear willing to budge on his plan to send a $250 rebate to 'hardworking Canadians,' despite pressure from the opposition to give the money to seniors and people who are not able to work.
'Mayday!': New details emerge after Boeing plane makes emergency landing at Mirabel airport
New details suggest that there were communication issues between the pilots of a charter flight and the control tower at Montreal's Mirabel airport when a Boeing 737 made an emergency landing on Wednesday.
Cucumbers sold in Ontario, other provinces recalled over possible salmonella contamination
A U.S. company is recalling cucumbers sold in Ontario and other Canadian provinces due to possible salmonella contamination.
Latest updates: Tracking RSV, influenza, COVID-19 in Canada
As the country heads into the worst time of year for respiratory infections, the Canadian respiratory virus surveillance report tracks how prevalent certain viruses are each week and how the trends are changing week to week.
Weekend weather: Parts of Canada could see up to 50 centimetres of snow, wind chills of -40
Winter is less than a month away, but parts of Canada are already projected to see winter-like weather.
W5 Investigates A 'ticking time bomb': Inside Syria's toughest prison holding accused high-ranking ISIS members
In the last of a three-part investigation, W5's Avery Haines was given rare access to a Syrian prison, where thousands of accused high-ranking ISIS members are being held.
Federal government posts $13B deficit in first half of the fiscal year
The Finance Department says the federal deficit was $13 billion between April and September.
Armed men in speedboats make off with women and children when a migrants' dinghy deflates off Libya
Armed men in two speedboats took off with women and children after a rubber dinghy carrying some 112 migrants seeking to cross the Mediterranean Sea started deflating off Libya's coast, a humanitarian aid group said Friday.
Nick Cannon says he's seeking help for narcissistic personality disorder
Nick Cannon has spoken out about his recent diagnosis of narcissistic personality disorder, saying 'I need help.'