McIntosh stepping down as Natives president
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- Published on Thursday, March 12, 2015
By Eoin Devereux
The Neepawa Banner
Next MJHL season, we’ll still see Dave McIntosh standing along the end boards watching the Neepawa Natives compete, but he’ll be cheering them on as just a fan and not as team president. After several months of speculation throughout the community, McIntosh has officially confirmed that he will be vacating the position at the end of May.
McIntosh has been a part of the team in some capacity for about 15 years, though he did not formally take over the president’s role until Oct, 2010. As he prepares to step away, McIntosh noted that he’s very proud of how the franchise has evolved over the years and how everyone involved has tried to give back to the community.
“In a lot of ways, I don’t see being involved [with the Neepawa Natives or any community oriented hockey team] any different than being a member of the Kinsmen Club, or Lions or the Rotary Club. I’ve always viewed it as; having a junior hockey league club in a town this size, it’s valuable, because we’re involved on multiple levels,” said McIntosh. “[For example], with the Rotary Club, every year they bring in a foreign exchange student and as the year progresses, you see that student grow and develop as a person. It’s like that times 25 with hockey players. With some of them, they’re with you for two or three years. You see them come in as young guys just wanting to play hockey and see them leave our community as young adults, who have an understanding of what it takes to put them on the ice and an appreciation of what it means to be a part of that community.”
“Another level is that, local hockey rinks are an integral part of a small town. In some places, they’re not dying but they are under utilized. In our case, one of the main stays at the Yellowhead Arena is the Natives. There’s 30 plus home games a year. The attendance it brings to the rink. That brings in revenue from concessions and other incidental revenue generators that benefits the Yellowhead,” added McIntosh. “It’s such a good thing for the community. That’s were I get the enjoyment of having helped out.”
During his tenure, McIntosh along with several others dedicated members of business side of the team, came up with several new concepts that are now commonplace throughout the league.
“The operation of the team as well, has had an effect on the Manitoba Junior Hockey League. [The Neepawa Natives] were the first ones to come out with a marketing plan. The titanium, gold and silver sponsorships. [We were] the first team to put our game scoring stats online, now everyone does it because it’s been adopted by the league,” said McIntosh. “We were the ones who went to the league and said ‘We need to have a balanced schedule so that the travel is fair.’ And it’s been adopted. We went to [the league office] and said ‘Look, we need to have a survivor series, because it will benefit all the partners in the league if more teams made the playoffs.’ That was a hard sell. Took five or six years, but here we are, it’s here and it’s benefiting the clubs.”
McIntosh acknowledges that the on-ice results for Neepawa have not been what everyone had hoped for as of late, but he remains optimistic that as he prepares to step away from a club that it is headed in the right direction.
“Looking back, I am disappointed that we didn’t have more success on the ice in the past four years,” said McIntosh. “But, we’ve been building our team through the [bantam] draft. Everyone involved with the club knew that this rebuild was going to be a five year project. Right now, we’re at the end of our third year. [The 2014-2015 season] didn’t play out exactly as we had hoped but it is headed in the right direction. This is a young team that is learning to win.”
