Saturday night at 7 p.m. in Chilliwack, history will be made when the Prince George Kodiaks take on the Valley Huskers in their inaugural B.C. Junior Football Conference game.
A roster of 45 Kodiaks players (half the current roster) will travel south for the game, which has taken nearly three years to orchestrate. That’s when team president Craig Briere began working on the project to form the not-for-profit structure now in place to run the team.
Bringing a junior football franchise to Prince George has been talked about for decades. It’s taken three years of planning and now it’s finally happening.
“I fundamentally believe the Kodiaks are going to engage youth of all shapes and sizes and give opportunities to kids that might otherwise not have an opportunity in sport,” said Briere. “Football is the most diverse sport you’re going to find - you’ve got tall, short, skinny, fat, from all economic social backgrounds and they all come together as one.
“We are going to impact kids’ lives and more importantly be another beacon for community pride. We will play in a Canadian Bowl. We will win a national championship and we might even do that on home soil. We are the smallest market in the CJFL but we have the biggest hearts and we will help put Prince George on the sporting map.”
As a non-profit club, similar to the Spruce Kings, the Kodiaks can apply for gaming grants/licences that allow the club to raise money through 50-50 draws. They have also lined up major corporate sponsors - Canadian Tire, Kopar Administration, Treasure Cove Casino, Prestige Treasure Cove Hotel – and a number of partners/private donors to help the team cover operational costs. The Kodiaks are licenced for beer sales for their home games at Masich Place Stadium and ticket and concession sales will also help pay the bills..
“When you want to run a junior program at a high level it becomes very expensive,” said Briere, a native of Saskatchewan for played five years with the Regina Rams and won four national junior football titles. “Your game-day sales actually generate a small fraction of your revenue required, the majority has to come from outside sources as fundraising and donations. Ultimately, we need to do three to four fundraisers a year and supplement that with grants and other sources.”
Like most sports organizations, the Kodiaks were limited by the pandemic as to what they could do to raise money for the team. Much of what they did raise came from their golf tournaments the past two years. The Kodiaks organize 7-on-7 local community football leagues (indoor and outdoor) and will work closely with the Prince George high school programs to stimulate more interest in minor football to grow those programs, especially in outlying communities such as Quesnel and Vanderhoof.
“When we designed the business model for the Kodiaks it was all based on diversity of revenue so we could do things such as running summer camps for kids with our players,” said Briere. “That generates some revenue for us but also give the players a job during the season (the camps run in July and August, and it allows us to give back to the community.
“From a monetary standpoint we are one of the larger football organizations in B.C. due to the fact we are doing everything from kindergarten to junior football, all tackle football, spring football. We run the (B.C. Provincial Football Association) academy. We really a one-stop shop for all football in northern BC with the idea to expand.”
The Kodiaks range in age from 18-23. Each player has to pay a $1,000 season registration fee which is purposely kept low to attract player to the team. That helps pay their travel cost for the five regular-season roadtrips. The players are responsible for their own living arrangements (rent or billeting) and food costs while they are at home. Eventually , Briere hopes to line up shared accommodations for put-of-town players so they will have place to live and won’t have to go looking for one when they arrive. The Kodiaks are already well-connected in the business community and are utilizing those contacts to line up jobs for the players.
Just 25 of the 90-player Kodiaks roster are Prince George players and the ultimate goal is to have 50 or 60 local players on the team. This year’s squad includes players from all four Western Canadian provinces and from Ontario, New Brunswick and the U.S. They’ve also tapped into Scotland to recruit offensive lineman Jonathon Letham and placekicker/punter Jack Cochrane, who played American rules football in their home country.
“In order to successfully run something like this you need a considerable amount of money, otherwise there’s no way the players could afford to pay the real cost of a program like this,” said Briere, CEO of West Coast Hospitality Group which operates the Prestige Treasure Cove Hotel.
“Especially in Year 1, it feels like constantly there’s money out the door. Things like buying a mascot, all these things add up. Because we’re a non-profit it’s not like you can make an investment and get a return on it eventually. We have to generate the revenue first before we can actually spend it.”
The 45 players on the game-day roster, as well as coaches and staff, will spend one in a hotel so they aren’t traveling the day of the game. With hotel rooms well over $260 per night, that adds considerably to the cost of operating the Kodiaks. The team also pays for pre-game meals on the road. Each trip will cost between $15,000 and $20,000.
A major start-up cost is equipment/uniforms for the 90 players – a $300,000 hit. The team also has to pay for field time at Masich. Some of the players were given travel subsidies to get to Prince George. The Kodiaks also plan to cover the cost of gym memberships for the players. The team is currently renting office space at the Hart Community Centre and has the lease from the city on sports fields at Volunteer Park south of the Elksentre which the club hopes to utilize as the site of its practice field/clubhouse.
One of the first orders of business for the Kodiaks was to hire the face of the franchise – head coach and director of football operations Keon Raymond, a two-time Grey Cup champion and CFL all-star who played for the Calgary Stampeders. Raymond brought in his former Stamps teammate Marvin Pope as the Kodiaks defensive co-ordinator, as well as ex-pros Sedderick Cunningham, the receivers/pass game coach, and Milton Collins, who is coaching the defensive backs. Local coaches Sean Yeulet, Cam and Sheldon Brown, Brad Paakonen and Calvin Sandheim have also joined the Kodiaks coaching ranks. The team also has athletic trainers, a strength and conditioning coach and an equipment manager. Raymond, general manager Ryan Bellamy and sports administrator Jacob Miller are currently the only paid employees on the team.
“You want to bring in the best guys who can give the players the opportunity to be successful and so they can learn,” said Briere. “We’re here to help those players develop so they can play in the CFL or at the (U SPORTS) level.”
The Kodiaks will be playing three-down Canadian rules football on the longer wider field - a switch from the American rules, small field used by Northern Conference of the B.C. High School Football Association. B.C. is the only high school jurisdiction in Canada that plays with American rules.
This is the start of a 10-game schedule for the Kodiaks - the seventh team in BCJFC. After Saturday’s game, the Kodiaks have a bye and will have two weeks to prepare for their home opening game against the Kamloops Broncs at Masich Place Stadium of Saturday, Aug. 6. Tickets are still available but are filling up fast in the 1,100-seat capacity grandstand. There’s also end-zone seats and standing areas that will allow more people into the stadium.
Season passes are on sale for $85 each. Individual game seats are $25 each, while end-zone passes are $10 each.
Saturday’s game will be broadcast on radio on 99.3 FM Rewind and will be livestreamed on pay per view at www.bcfctv.com, starting at 6:45 p.m.
