It is clear from Ms Patterson’s letter (below) that she fails to understand that the Heat are not the issue, merely evidence of City Hall’s financial mismanagement and flawed priorities.

I really don’t care enough about the Heat as an organization to be either negative or positive about the Heat.

On the other hand I am intensely negative about Abbotsford City Council using taxpayer dollars to pay yearly, multi-million dollar subsidies to the owners of the Heat.

If the ownership group of the Heat want to own a professional hockey team, that is their right. However, a professional hockey team is a business and it is the owners of a business who are suppose to assume the risks associated with a business.

Who is it at City Hall and/or around Abbotsford who thinks it is a good idea for the taxpayers of Abbotsford to assume all the risk for the Heat, rather than the owners assuming the risks involved?

If the Heat ownership felt the probability of multi-million dollar losses was too certain to invest in the Heat and move them to Abbotsford without guaranteed protection from multi-million dollar losses – City Council had no business agreeing to cover the Heat’s losses in order to indulge their egos.

Yes indulge their egos. City Hall turned away the Chilliwack Chiefs when they approached City Hall to partner in building a new home for the Chiefs because “Abbotsford didn’t need a new arena or a new hockey team” – until Langley said yes to the Chiefs. Then suddenly Abbotsford needed a new arena and a hockey team.

Perhaps Ms Patterson thinks it makes sense to subsidise the owners of a professional hockey team…… but it seems loony to me to raise fees/costs and deny participation in athletics to increasing numbers of young amateur athletes as part of raising the millions of taxpayer dollars required to allow a few – paid – professional athletes to play hockey in Abbotsford and subsidise ownership of a professional hockey team.

As it is with the Heat, so it is with the Abbotsford Entertainment and Sports Complex building. I am neither positive nor negative about the building itself.

I am negative about the fact that based on the construction costs of arenas built in other BC cities at the time AESC was built, the AESC should have cost taxpayers half of what it did.

Adding to the insult and injury of taxpayers paying 100% more than construction should have cost, carelessness and arrogance cost the taxpayers of Abbotsford millions of dollars from provincial or federal government funding. Funding that every other city – except Abbotsford – got.

And when citizens dared to suggest that council needed to line up funding from senior levels of government before plans were finalized, council told the citizens to run along and let those who “knew what they were doing” handle the matter.

Abbotsford City Council does not have $50,000 to build a handicapped accessible playground, it does not have money to make city sidewalks navigable to citizens in wheelchairs so they do not have to wheel along on the roads of Abbotsford, it does not have the money to paint lines on the roads that would be visible in the rain or do other road work needed to make driving, walking and cycling safer in Abbotsford.

Abbotsford City Council does not have money to meet the needs of the City’s most vulnerable or to address safety concerns and issues. But when it comes to City Councillor’s ego projects, the city has millions of dollars a year to squander to subsidise Heat ownership for the millions of dollars the Heat lose and millions more to subsidise the losses of operating the AESC for the Heat.

While it is nice that Ms Patterson enjoys the Heat games, it would be a lot more enjoyable for taxpayers if the ticket price Ms Patterson and others pay included the $30 subsidy that taxpayers pay per person attending a Heat game.

While those attending Heat games may not find them as enjoyable if the ticket prices for Heat games included/covered the $30 per fan per game subsidy,  taxpayers would find the change a positive development.

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I have read too many negative remarks about the Abbotsford Heat. I wonder if the people complaining have ever gone to a game and felt the community spirit there.

I am not a real hockey fan, but I really love the atmosphere at the Heat games. I recently attended the game with my dogs. It was fabulous. The great thing was that $5 from each dog ticket  was donated to the SPCA.  As I walked through the lobby the SPCA was there with information about their programs, and there were other freebies for pet owners.

The national anthem is an awesome event in itself. Local talent sing, and they are exceptional. When they finish, the crowds roar. Clayburn Middle School students are producing broadcasts, young hockey players are out on the ice playing a game, parents selling 50/50  tickets, and kids even get a chance to ride on the Zamboni.

I love seeing all the red in the audience! People catching T-shirts, bags of chips, winning jerseys, playing the Tim Horton game. Great music, Hawkey, friendly people, yummy popcorn, The Kiss Cam, it is all so much fun. It isn’t just about the hockey. Families are there. Lots of happy children dancing and cheering in the stands. I challenge you to come out and see for yourself.

Shelley Patterson