Last Chance for Niagara Falls OHL Bid

Moe Mantha Jr.’s bid to bring OHL hockey back to North Bay may have taken a step back once again.

The Mississauga Ice Dogs ownership group has put together a last minute proposal in hopes of persuading Niagara Falls City Council to approve a deal to see the OHL franchise moved to Niagara Falls.

The Niagara Falls Review is reporting that the Ice Dogs ownership group held a conference call over the weekend to formulate a new game plan.

The deal to bring the IceDogs to Niagara Falls appeared to be dead when the city turned down the original proposal after a council meeting last Monday when the city turned down a proposal that included building a 35 million dollar arena to replace their current rink which doesn’t meet OHL standards.

But Mlakar told the Niagara Falls Review that his company decided it was worth the extra effort. This would make it the third proposal in the last six months that Niagara Falls City officials have received from a group that wants to bring OHL hockey to the Honeymoon Capital.

"We sat back and said, 'Is this team worth it to come back with another proposal?' We saw what was happening on the websites, we saw what was happening in the community, we got hundreds of phone calls and we decided to reach out and make another proposal," Mlakar told the Review.

The city officials in Niagara Falls have until next Saturday to approve the new proposal, as the OHL board of governors meet next weekend in Saginaw.

To add insult to North Bay injury, the ownership group that is currently working with Capital Sports to buy the team told the Niagara Falls Review they are not interested in purchasing the team and moving it to North Bay. Last Friday afternoon Moe Mantha Jr. told BayToday.ca that he had not heard anything from the Capital Sports group about his bid to buy the franchise and move it to North Bay.

Who's on the bus?

North Bay hockey fans thought they saw a ray of OHL hockey hope this weekend when the Mississauga Ice Dogs bus was parked at Memorial Gardens over the weekend. There was some talk around town that a group from the Ice Dogs was up here to look over the arena, however Memorial Gardens arena officials say the only thing that went on during the weekend was a Synchronized Skating event and a Skyhawks game. It has not been confirmed but speculation is that the Ice Dogs bus was chartered by a Mississauga-area Synchronized Skating team since the Ice Dogs were playing two home games on the weekend.