{"id":23504,"date":"2019-04-11T20:28:52","date_gmt":"2019-04-12T00:28:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=23504"},"modified":"2019-04-18T12:26:02","modified_gmt":"2019-04-18T16:26:02","slug":"team-owner-renews-tigers-commitment-to-aurora","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/team-owner-renews-tigers-commitment-to-aurora\/","title":{"rendered":"Team owner renews Tigers\u2019 commitment to Aurora"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By Brock Weir<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The \u201cjungle\u201d is here to stay, according to Jim Thomson.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Just days after the demise of the Newmarket Hurricanes\nwas announced, the owner of the Aurora Tigers Junior A hockey club, renewed the\nteam\u2019s commitment to Aurora.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mr. Thomson appeared at Council last week to not only\nrenew the team\u2019s commitment to the community, but also to honour player Steve\nMacLean, who was honoured by the Town with the Town\u2019s Excellence in Sports\naward.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

MacLean was recognized for his commitment to the Tigers\nand the community that calls the team its own, always rising to the occasion\nand lending a helping hand to the myriad community initiatives the Tigers have\ntaken on; everything ranging from special bag-your-grocery days at local shops\nto ongoing work with the Aurora Sports Hall of Fame.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI\u2019ve had a lot of residents say that I\u2019m everywhere, but\nthe funny thing is that everywhere I go I see Steve,\u201d said Mayor Tom Mrakas.\n\u201cIt is remarkable the amount of volunteering he does in our community and I\ncan\u2019t think of a better person to receive this award.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

MacLean was also saluted by Mr. Thomson, who hailed him\nas a \u201ccultured, stand-up, professional young man we were blessed to have in our\nTown for three years.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The work of MacLean and the rest of the roster, he noted,\nis part of the Teamwork the Thomsons \u2013 Jim and wife Rita \u2013 have worked to bring\nto the team. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhen my wife and I bought the team, being a former NHL\nplayer, we said we are going to run it like a pro team,\u201d he said. \u201cBeing here\nthree years, these players are constantly in our community. We were just at a\nschool yesterday, we went there, gave a great presentation where we talked to\nkids about bullying, eating properly, and all these kids are doing \u2013 I call it\nplanting seeds<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe people I know here have been huge supporters of Rita\nand myself. We have lived in Aurora now for eleven years, bought the team five\nyears ago, and I can\u2019t say enough about what the people in this room have done\nfor us, or we probably wouldn\u2019t be here. We couldn\u2019t sustain it, so thank you\nfor the teamwork you have provided.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But, sustain it they have \u2013 and it\u2019s a commitment they\nintend to keep.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe can\u2019t have our hockey team leave this community,\u201d he\nsaid. \u201cWe saw what happened to the Hurricanes and we need the Aurora Tigers to\nstay in Aurora. The Aurora Tigers are the only team in the OJHL to make two\nnational championships: in 2004 and 2007. Now that Newmarket\u2019s gone, hopefully\nwe can get more bums in seats, more sponsors, and we need to bring a\nchampionship back to Aurora because it is big for minor hockey and big for the\nTown. Our goal this year will be to bring another championship back.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Over the past few years, Mr. Thomson said twelve of their\nplayers have received scholarships, two players have been drafted into the NHL\nand, at the end of the day, that is what the Tigers club is all about.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe more people we get on board, the better team we\nbuild, the more scholarships we get and the better chance we have of keeping\nthe team here. I love the game and all that but in Junior Hockey you don\u2019t make\nmoney and it takes a team to make it work.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The exit of the Hurricanes, however, is, in a way, an\nopportunity for Aurora, according to Mr. Thomson.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cTom [Mrakas] and I met with [Newmarket Mayor] John\nTaylor and it is official now that Newmarket is gone, so we\u2019re going to work\nwith John bringing Newmarket down to Aurora,\u201d he said. \u201cWe\u2019re even looking at\nTom\u2019s idea of playing a couple of mutual site games to keep the communities\nalive, and I think it is a great idea.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But it\u2019s only a great idea if it gets people to come out\nto a game.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At a recent meeting of Newmarket Council, Mr. Thomson\nsaid he was struck by an exchange between Mr. Taylor and another Council\nmember. When the Council member asked for a status update on the Hurricanes,\nthe Mayor asked when they had last been to a game.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the case of the Tigers, the Thomsons have been working\nto right the ship as far as attendance is concerned. After increasing the\nticket prices by $2 last year, they are lowering them by $4 to $10 a game this\nseason to drum up some excitement and interest. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s great hockey and I think people are missing out,\u201d\nsaid Mayor Mrakas. \u201cI encourage everyone to come out. It is phenomenal that you\nguys are everywhere \u2013 Ribfest, schools, the Sports Hall of Fame, grocery\nstores, you guys are everywhere in the community and do so much work and I\nthink it brings so much value to our community to see these young men out and\nin the community helping, volunteering and doing what you can to make a better\nplace.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For more information on the Aurora Tigers and to keep\nyour eye on next season\u2019s schedule, visit auroratigers.pointstreaksites.com\/view\/auroratigers\/<\/a><\/p>\n\r\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The \u201cjungle\u201d is here to stay, according to Jim Thomson. Just days after the demise of the Newmarket Hurricanes was announced…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":23508,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[24,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-23504","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-sports","category-sports"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/2019-04-11-04.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-676","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-15 16:51:12","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23504","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23504"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23504\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23508"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23504"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23504"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23504"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}