The days of the Trois-Rivières Lions will continue as, according to Matthew Vachon of DL Coulisse, Jeff Dickinson of Spire Sports will be buying the Trois-Rivières Lions. Spire Sports already owns two ECHL teams, the Greenville Swamp Rabbits and Rapid City Rush; he also owns Spire Motorsports. Per ECHL rules, Trois-Rivieres is now not allowed to trade with Greenville or Rapid City. The sale of the Lions comes less than a week after Deacon Sports and Entertainment was forced to sell both the Newfoundland Growlers and Lions, but unfortunately, they couldn’t find a buyer for the Growlers, which led to the team folding with less than ten games left in the regular season, but for the Lions, there were rumors that there was a buyer but when the news first broke it was unclear about who that buyer was. Spire Sports will also be working with the city of Trois-Rivieres on a lease agreement with Colisee Videotron, which currently serves as the home of the Lions.
The ECHL Board of Governors voted on the sale and unanimously approved it on Monday. There was a press conference at 3 p.m. on Wednesday at Colisee Videotron. Jeff Dickinson was attending virtually and the mayor of Trois-Rivieres, Jean Lamarche, attended the press conference along with members from the ECHL. The main focus is to renegotiate a lease as it ends at the end of the season, the hope is for a 10-year lease to keep the team in Trois-Rivieres. Another main focus once the lease is settled is to work on continuing the affiliation with the Montreal Canadiens, which expires at the end of the season.
On the ice, the Lions will finish out their regular season schedule at home with a three-game set against the Worcester Railers, as the series has some major Kelly Cup Playoff implications as the seeding in the North Division will now be based on point percentage with Newfoundland folding and Trois-Rivieres and Norfolk only playing 69 games opposed to the scheduled 72. Trois Rivieres sits at .500, and Worcester sits at .507 heading into the weekend series.
From one entity owning two ECHL franchises to another one owning up to its third franchise. When is this league going to learn? Yes, it’s been done in the past but the league just tossed a team that had won a Cup in 2019 and was supported compared to the Lions. When Trois Rivières is mentioned, the first league which comes to mind is the QMJHL.