A last ditch Hail Mary attempt to save the Cornwall River Kings led by Council hopeful Rodney Rivette has failed.
From Rodney:
“We have not met the requirements needed to save our River Kings. I promise you that it wasn’t for lack of effort. As stated I will return the cheques and money received. We will be calling everyone to arrange pickups. Calls are starting shortly.
Before we go I want to thank the fans that did put their money to save the team. I also wish to thanks the volunteers who spent hours trying to save the team. I will have an official thank you post once I have a few hours to decompress. The first thing I want to do is get everyone their cheques and cash back. Please bring your receipts in if you paid by cash.
Also a giant thank you for the patience of the LNAH. They allowed us to try and save our team. They have been so helpful in our bid. It’s unfortunate that we did not reach our goals.
It’s a sad day for hockey in Cornwall. The volunteers and the fans tried their best to meet the requirements of the league in order to save the franchise.
It’s been a long past few days. And I wish to thank all the volunteers and fans who stepped up to try and save the team.
All that being said, we’re making calls who donated to return the cheques and cash we’ve collected.
Thank you to the LNAH for the opportunity to try and save our Cornwall River Kings.
Their commitment to their fans is second to none.
Thank you everyone for their support. Wish we could have had a different outcome. Fans can attend 812 Pitt Unit 12 to get refunds until 9PM today and 9AM till 4 PM on Tuesday August 30th.
Former River Kings owner Steve Moreau sent in the following to CFN:
“For almost two years we tried to get community support for this team. For four years myself and other owners attempted to make this team work. It’s no surprise Mr. Rivette did not succeed in saving the team. There is only a handful of people who want the team in Cornwall. It’s disappointing.
Mr. Rivette and his team accounted for about $100,000 in pledges, but less actual cash came in before the deadline.
An outside investor simply didn’t have enough time. Sources said the timing was critical as there most likely to have to be a player dispersal draft and time is needed to organize that or possibly even move the team to another city and maintain the league schedule.
What do you think Cornwall area hockey fans? Could the team have been saved if it had better conditions from the City? You can post your comments below.
UPDATE
Here is the release from the League who for some odd reason has stopped issuing them in English…
La Ligue nord-américaine de hockey a été informée sur le coup de 16h00 que le groupe piloté par M. Rodney Rivette n’avait pas été en mesure de respecter les exigences afin de conserver les River Kings à Cornwall.
Malgré tous les efforts déployés au cours des derniers jours c’est très humblement et sans amertume que M. Rivette a communiqué l’information au Bureau des gouverneurs de la LNAH.
La LNAH désire remercier M. Rivette d’avoir cru en la survie des River Kings et d’avoir investi de son temps dans la recherche de solutions.
L’exécutif de la LNAH a donc recommandé la dissolution des River Kings et un calendrier de 140 parties à sept équipes. Le repêchage de dissolution des joueurs de River Kings aura lieu par conférence téléphonique mercredi soir le 31 août et sera diffusé sur le Facebook officiel de la LNAH.
Une saison à sept équipes est également synonyme d’une toute nouvelle formule pour les séries de fin de saison. Une façon de faire qui sera novatrice et qui saura charmer tous les partisans de la LNAH. Cette nouvelle formule sera dévoilée plus tard cette semaine dans le but d’en faire une annonce officielle.
Quant au calendrier des parties préparatoires et de la saison régulière, tout est mis en œuvre afin de les rendre disponibles d’ici mercredi.
Does anyone with a functioning brain really give a rats ass? It’s a stupid hockey team. Humanity will carry on just fine without the River Kings, or any other sports team for that matter.
Food, rent, clothing, etc. etc. etc. comes way before a hockey team and nobody in their right frame of mind invests in Cornhole. That town is officially dead and buried and getting more ground thrown on top of that cursed place. No corporation with a good sense of mind invests in such a place as Cornhole.
Yes Furtz humanity sure will get along very well without a hockey team. There are much bigger fish to fry and that is the world’s economy that is going to crash as well as WWIII but you try to tell brainless sheeple of Cornhole these things and they think that I am off my hinges which I am not. Putin and Obama and all world leaders are off their hinges and this can escalate.
Lots of teams…little support. Cornwall fans supported the Royals and they support the Colts. That should tell you something. Keep the Colts, but anything short of an OHL team,don’t waste your time. Although, Brockville supports both Junior A and B teams.
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Cornhole had the farm team of the Québec Nordiques and couldn’t afford to keep them and they folded their equipment and left Cornhole like all other businesses. Cornhole is finished literally. Cornhole cannot afford a hockey team and jailbird Willie owned the Royals and took it away to the Toronto area and sold it. Cornhole is finished and finished a long time ago.
KOD you cannot compare Brockville to Cornhole. Brockville is a nice little town and appreciates businesses and has an educated and intelligent population compared to Cornhole and it is like comparing the sky to hell. Brockville and other towns surpass Cornhole by longshot. Nobody with brains wants Cornhole and anybody who moved there is in big regret.
The tune needs changing. The record (or CD) is wearing out.
Not surprisingly… the Standard-Freeholder spun “baby” Rivette’s play with quotes like “incredibl”, and “success” — and that’s with the charade missing the required $350,000 by only a little over $270,000… ooohhh sssooo close.
Too bad we can’t get $100,000 dollars pledged for a proper sk8 park for our young citizens.
Schools are closing everywhere because the population is dropping especially in Cornhole. When you don’t encourage businesses, you don’t have a real bus system for those who don’t drive, your housing is out of touch with the people in price and taxes, etc. many people today would much prefer to have a dog and a cat than to have a family. Hockey used to be a fun activity for families.
School closing and realignments will be happening province wide. More to come.
Hugger Ontario is bankrupt. The son of a former PM of Lebanon has an oil and gas company in Saudi Arabia and over 100K are being let go. The son is Saad Harriri and is extremely wealthy. All over the world things are mighty bad.
Germany and Czechoslovakia told their people to stock up on at least 10 days of food and water, etc. Something is going to happen so hold on to your shorts. A global depression is coming along with WWIII and this is no joke at all this is mighty serious – get right with God. The Bible is right 2/3 of the world’s people will die.