Back to hockey and the WHL in Steinbach though, the recent journey is pretty interesting. It is an open secret that the previous HyLife owners in Steinbach and La Broquerie are desperate to bring a team into the community.
It started in the last municipal election of 2018, they supported one mayoral candidate, developer Paul Neustaedter, with the condition for more money for a building if he was elected.
https://steinbachonline.com/articles...-events-centre
The city voters didn't really like the idea, it seemed like a bribe of some sort, and chose a third candidate for mayor. They then chose this downtown location to rebuild for the event centre instead of the location in-between Mitchell and Steinbach that Neustaedter was pushing for with the HyLife backers (Truthfully this is better for Steinbach's downtown as a whole).
One year later HyLife was sold for $498 million dollars, in addition to the 50% stake they had sold earlier for $50 million to a Japanese firm. This also goes alongside all the millions they made selling bacon around the world.
https://www.realagriculture.com/2019...okphand-foods/
They still live in Steinbach and La Broquerie aside from their many winter homes around the world and they apparently remain somewhat fixated on the idea of bringing a WHL team to Steinbach. I am not sure want the going cost for expansion or purchase of teams are but they see this as a status symbol for them and for Steinbach. I guess it means Steinbach "made it"?
I am not sure what Winkler has in terms of investors but I am sure they have just as many people and money to back up the purchase of a team as well as the former HyLife owners are in Steinbach. One of the previous partners, Grant Lazaruk is now CEO and is building the company's headquarters in Steinbach. The others are retired from the pork business but are sitting on piles of bacon money.
https://www.winnipegfreepress.com/th...ch-head-office
It will be interesting to see if the HyLife owners get their wish. Hopefully both cities get WHL teams and then they can settle the issue of which city has a larger population base to draw from on the ice.
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