WINTRINGHAM ROOFING Locally Owned & Operated for 20 years
SASKATOONEXPRESS - March 7-13, 2016 - Page 1
306-230-3528 WWW.WINTRINGHAMROOFING.CA WINTRINGHAMROOFING@HOTMAIL.COM Volume 14, Issue 9, Week of March 7, 2016
Saskatoonʼs REAL Community Newspaper
the days of expansion into the U.S. So we ended up selling 16,000 season tickets (to save the team) and Larry Ryckman asked me to come on full time.” He was also there, during Sig Gutche’s time as owner, when the team sold 30,000 season tickets. “We held the record for the most season tickets in Canadian sports ever which was just a great, great story. Unfortunately some of Sig’s other businesses fell a little bit short and he ended up selling the team.” Genier left the Stampeders when the Calgary Flames purchased the team from its community partners. There wasn’t room for two sets of senior executives. From the Stampeders, Genier joined Bobsleigh Canada Skeleton. He was right there when Kaillie Humphries drove her sled to a gold medal at the Winter Olympics in Sochi. That was a thrill of a lifetime. “In the last year (with Bobsleigh Canada), I think I was in 19 different countries, which was incredible. It was an incredible five years to be involved, culminating with the Olympics. Not many people get to go to the Olympics fully accredited. If you are talking about a rock-star, all-access pass, that’s it.”
Lee Genier feels the Rush
Team president makes lacrosse a hot ticket in Saskatoon Cam Hutchinson Saskatoon Express ntil nine months ago, Lee Genier had never been to Saskatoon. Now, a case can be made for giving him the keys to the city. In a behind-the-scenes kind of way, Genier is the person who sold the city — and province — on the excitement and entertainment value of professional lacrosse. Boy, has he ever. Genier was announced as the president of the Rush at a press conference in July, although most of the cat was out of the bag before that sweltering day on the terrace at the Bessborough Hotel. Genier was actually hired near the end of the 2015 season, when the team was DC030745itsDarlene completing 10-year run in Edmonton.
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He stayed hidden from media view until July. Team owner Bruce Urban didn’t want his new president to take the hit for the team’s move to Saskatoon. Urban is a let’s-get-right-to-the-point person, Genier said. The two have known each other for more than 15 years. “Last spring when they were headed down the last stretch, he sent me a message and said, ‘Lee, I need to meet with you.’ I said, ‘What would you like to talk about?’ He said, ‘I’d prefer to leave it for the meeting.’” When they met, Urban cut right to the chase. “He goes, ‘Do you want to talk about chit chat or do you want me to get right to the point?’ I said, ‘Well, get right to the point. I don’t like surprises.’”
Lee Genier had three and a half months to sell lacrosse in Saskatoon (Grant Romancia Photography) Urban said he was planning to move the team to Saskatoon and wanted Genier to be the president. Holding lofty positions in sports isn’t new to Genier. The Saskatoon decision was about geography as much as anything. Did he want to leave Calgary? Genier spent almost two decades with the Calgary Stampeders. When he left, he had three Grey Cup rings and was the team’s vice-president of business development. He was there on a part-time basis when the team was on the verge of moving to San Antonio. Genier said then-owner Larry Ryckman wasn’t kidding. “It wasn’t an idle threat. They had actually had a deal done to move the team to San Antonio. If you remember, those were
Feeling the Rush Now Genier was being asked if he wanted to move to Saskatoon. After Urban’s initial offer, the two didn’t speak for two weeks. “I did a ton of research because I had never been to Saskatoon before. I had a girl who worked for me who lived in Saskatoon, so I called her and asked her what she thought about Saskatoon. She said, ‘Great city; you’d love it.’” She was right. “I came here in the summer and I just loved it. I loved the city and thought it was fantastic. The people were incredibly welcoming, very accommodating.” The decision to move was made. Now, he had less than four months to get the team off the ground. He was coming to a community that had limited knowledge of lacrosse and next to none about the National Lacrosse League (NLL). People here had been scorched by other professional leagues which had made pit stops in the city. With its 30-year track record, the NLL is different from the rest. Now, Genier had to get people in Saskatoon to believe him. The press conference at the Bessborough last July blew Genier away. There were 350 people in attendance and 10 cameras. In all his years in sports, Genier had never seen anything like it. (Continued on page 14)