Shareholders of the community-owned Lethbridge Hurricanes voted in a meeting on Monday not to sell the team.
Sixty-eight per cent of shareholders voted in favour of selling the team to private owners, but 75 per cent approval was needed to move on to the next phase in negotiations.
The Hurricanes have struggled on and off the ice in recent years. The team hasn’t made the playoffs since 2009-10 and has compiled an estimated $1.25 million in losses over the last five years. Attendance has also dwindled in recent years, although the team has already sold more season tickets for next season than they did in 2014-15.
Members of the community ownership were concerned that the team could be relocated if sold to a private owner, a fear WHL commissioner Ron Robison dismissed when speaking to shareholders in early May.
“We have no interest in moving this franchise,” Robison told reporters. “We think this franchise can be one of the best, quite frankly, in the Western Hockey League.”
The future of the 28-year-old franchise now rests with the shareholders, who will be responsible for finding a way to turn around the team’s fortunes.
Robison said last month that the league would continue to support the team regardless of the outcome of the vote.
“It’s about finding the right people to take this franchise forward if that’s the decision the shareholders arrive at,” said Robison. “If not, the other side of that is the community ownership has a lot of work ahead of them to right the ship and get this franchise stabilized from a financial standpoint.”