The B.C. Hockey League has put a unanimous stamp of approval of the sale of the Quesnel Millionaires and their move to Chilliwack.
Moray Keith, Jim Bond and longtime BCHL head coach Harvey Smyl are the new owners of the team, which will be part of the BCHL's Interior Conference next season.
With Smyl as the head coach and general manager, the Chilliwack club will play in the 4,817-seat Prospera Centre and will adopt the nickname Chiefs, used by the BCHL team in that city from 1996 until 2000, when it moved to Langley to make way for the WHL Chilliwack Bruins.
The BCHL's Langley club dropped the name Chiefs when Keith, Bond and Smyl sold it to John and Roy Henderson in late April. The Langley team is now called the Rivermen. The path to Chilliwack was cleared in April when the Bruins were sold to a group in Victoria in April. On Thursday, the Bruins were renamed the Royals.
Pending approval by B.C. Hockey, the shift of the Mills franchise to Chilliwack leaves the Prince George Spruce Kings as the only BCHL team in the North Central Interior. The Kings' closest opponent is now the Merritt Centennials, 553 kilometres south.
"It's a relief to finally get it done," Millionaires president Bob Sales told the Quesnel Observer.
"We're [Mills owners] happy for the kids, they will have the opportunity to play in a good arena."
The team's struggles on the ice and the lack of a suitable arena proved the downfall of the Millionaires. Quesnel Twin Arenas where the Mills played seats only about 1,100 and the team ranked near the bottom of the BCHL in attendance last season, averaging just 638 fans per game.
In October 2008, Quesnel voters passed a referendum by a 53 per cent majority to borrow up to $15 million to build a new 2,000-seat arena and 450-seat performing arts centre, contingent on receiving $15 million in combined federal and provincial government funding, which failed to arrive.
The Mills ranked second-last overall in the 16-team league in 2010-11, with a 13-38-3-6 record, and were swept in four games by Penticton in the first playoff round.
The Mills became a privately-owned team in April 2009 when it was sold to a group of local investors. The club lost $300,000 over the past two seasons and Sales said the Mills had no other alternative but to sell.
