Dennis Waterman feels he has a pretty diverse group of hockey-minded individuals interested in helping him in his mission to bring the Royals back to the city.
Waterman officially took over the role as chairperson for a Royals booster club formed with the intention of making life attractive for Royals president Ross Coates to bring the Corner Brook Royals franchise back to the city for provincial senior hockey play this year.
“People who have been around the game for awhile,” Waterman said of the two dozen people who attended a first meeting Wednesday night to guage interest in his goal. “We had a great group and a lot of interest.”
He accepted the volunteer role to lead the not-for-profit group during a meeting held Wednesday night at the community room in Sobey’s in the Valley Mall. Corner Brook businessman Richard Dennis took on the vice-chairperson role and Don Bishop will serve as the treasurer. The role of secretary wasn’t filled, but Waterman expects somebody will fill the role when the group meets again next week.
“We’re hoping to expand the group even more to kind of spread it around to ensure everybody takes on a little bit of a responsibility with the group,” he said.
Waterman said Coates and his management team will still have to work out details on the hockey operations side of things, but that won’t stop the group from forging ahead with its plan to make the team financially stable with the Pepsi Centre as its venue for provincial senior hockey action.
He expects two of the group’s main priorities in the initial stages will be working out the fine details of a season pass package and building a strong relationship with the various media in the area.
His group will meet again Wednesday 7 p.m. at the community room where he expects work will begin on the bucket list of things he hopes to accomplish in time.
