The Almaguin Spartans junior hockey team has announced it is ending operations less than 10 games into the new 2024-25 season and is looking for new owners.
The Spartans, who have played out of South River since the franchise moved from Mattawa in 2014, play in the non-sanctioned Greater Metro Junior 'A' Hockey League.
The organization was also forced to take a leave of absence as well in the 2022-23 season.
"The Almaguin Spartans ownership regrets to inform our players, staff, sponsors, volunteers, fans, and the community that the club will be ending its competition for the 2024-2025 season," the Spartans stated on social media on Tuesday.
"This is a very difficult decision, but we feel this decision is in the best interests of our players, staff and ownership."
Officials claim the decision was made due to team culture issues that were impacting the performance of the club and the program.
"We have some great young men in this room, and we do not want to hold them back or put them through a season that is not enjoyable for them or our staff," the team explained.
"Junior Hockey is supposed to be a great experience for everyone involved and despite our best efforts with this group, we do not see a path to a successful season.
"Over the coming days, we will be working tirelessly to find our players new teams for the remainder of the season. Many of them we have found new teams for already."
The Spartans officials say all sponsors will be contacted and issued refunds this week.
"Board advertisements are annual advertising in the facility and will remain in place and continue. Any season ticket holders or flex pack holders, please email us at [email protected] and we will refund you," the post continued.
While the junior team will not operate, the Spartans say they will continue to run youth development programs, PD Day camps, and their annual adult hockey tournaments.
"None of these programs will be impacted in any way," the post stated.
The organization's peak was in 2018 when the Almaguin Spartans captured the Russell Cup GMHL title.
"We want to thank the Almaguin community for your incredible support over the last decade," they continued.
They say recruiting has become a big challenge for the organization.
"It has been a great run, and we have experienced some incredible success and were able to bring a league championship to Almaguin in 2018," the said.
"That experience is something many of us will never forget. The Spartans program has relied heavily on European talent over the last decade and since returning from the pandemic it has been very difficult to recruit the same number of players and the same level of players out of Europe that we did in the past. The Spartans ownership group has also brought in multiple different people over the last three years to assist with this recruiting, but they have not been able to deliver to the club’s expectations in recruiting to support the work already done by our General Manager.
"The current ownership group has been involved since day 1 but are at points in their personal life that they need step away from ownership and look to pass the franchise on to someone else to keep the club locally if possible," they continued.
"For any ownership inquiries, please contact us at [email protected]."
The Spartans are the second GMHL team in the area to cease operations for the 2024-25 season. The Temiscaming Titans franchise, which was put up for sale in the spring of 2024, opted for a leave of absence as it seeks a new ownership group as well.
