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Date: Jan 13, 2010

FUTURE OF OJHL LOOKS BRIGHT

Theres been a lot of speculation over the past few months...and few years as to the direction and future of the Ontario Junior Hockey League.  The next few weeks will be very interesting as the direction of the leauge will be finalized most likely.....and preliminary talks are very posititve.

The past two seasons have seen two "pilot" type projects in the works, where teams have divided into seperate "conferences" to play with slightly ammended rules and working conditions.  The results of all this have brought all 36 Jr A hockey clubs back to the table with some progressive and exciting results.

The one thing everyone agrees on is Jr A hockey in Ontario has the potential to be the best quality hockey in Canada if the proper governance model is put in place....period.  This probably means a smaller more focused league with strict operational guidelines.

Where does Collingwood fit in ?  As one OJHL official commented this weekend " Collingwood should be the flagship team model in our league if we are going to be successful....great support, great attendance, great atmosphere...thats what we want for Jr A hockey in Ontario."

"We certainly will need the commitment of the town to move forward in this new league" comments GM Darrell Mussell.  "Teams will be merging and the communities that provide the support structure will attract the teams....it happened when the OHL was formed and it will happen again now.  Our hope is that the town views Jr A hockey important enough to support long term, it really will be Council's decision of hockey's importance to Collingwood as to whether we can operate here long term"

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