Mountain View County council has turned down a request from the Olds Grizzlys hockey team for sponsorship help.
The move came during the Oct. 24 council meeting.
In a letter received by council, the team’s business-sales and marketing manager Gary Gaudette highlighted some of the sponsorship funding opportunities open to the county.
The team did not ask for a specific amount of sponsorship funding.
Councillors voted to receive the request for sponsorship as information.
Following the meeting, Reeve Bruce Beattie says the county believes it already provides good support toward local recreation and culture.
“Council feels that we do the appropriate amount of funding towards recreation at this point and it’s not something we want to get into, supporting semi-professional teams,” said Beattie. “It’s not something that we have done in the past.
“We have a lot of grant programs for our rural community, for FCSS, for libraries. And we made a significant increase last year of 40 per cent towards recreation and culture for our urban centres in the county.
“There’s a limit on how far we can go down that road before we start looking at who we are going to support and how many are we going to support. I think there is a limit.”
The Olds Grizzlys have played in the Alberta Junior Hockey league since 1981.
