The press release issued earlier this afternoon:
At a special meeting Tuesday night, the four teams who recently gave notice to the Newfoundland and Labrador Senior Hockey League, that they were withdrawing from that League, formed a new Senior Hockey League to be known as "The Central-West Senior Hockey League." The new league will have teams from Corner Brook, Grand Falls-Windsor, Gander and Clarenville. A framework for operating the league was unanimously approved by the representatives from management for the Western Royals, the Grand Falls-Windsor Cataracts, the Gander Flyers and the Clarenville Caribous.
All teams are confident that the new Central-West League will rekindle some of the old rivalries from the "old" West Coast Hockey League. A primary goal for all the teams involved in the new senior hockey setup is to bring back scheduling of games that have teams playing at home every second weekend. Long layoffs and scheduling difficulties were cited by all representatives as a big problem in the province-wide league. The former province-wide format also involved more costly operating and travel obligations that the four teams in the new league feel will be eliminated. The league will play a 24-game schedule, similar to other years.
All teams expressed excitement for the upcoming hockey season, and are very optimistic that fans will also be excited to come out to watch. A more tightly knit league and scheduling two home-game weekend play every second weekend will be a plus for making the new league fan friendly.
Approval of the new league's constitution and bylaws, along with the election of a new executive, will be completed at a meeting of team representatives to be held in Gander this weekend. Once this has been achieved an application for approval of the new league will be forwarded to HNL.
