Image credit: CFJC Today/Anthony Corea

By Marty Hastings

Q&A WITH KOLLE

Storm owner Kolle talks jump to Junior A Tier 1, friction among owners, increased costs, revenue

Mar 19, 2025 | 4:39 PM

KAMLOOPS — The Kootenay International Junior Hockey League (KIJHL) is a 21-team circuit that has Junior A Tier 2 status in the BC Hockey and Hockey Canada ranks.

After an assessment completed in partnership with a third-party consulting agency (Blackfin Sports Group), the KIJHL has selected 11 of its teams to join a new Junior A Tier 1 league in time for the 2026-2027 season, pending approval from BC Hockey.

Of the remaining 10 teams, seven may pursue further assessment if they wish to join the KIJHL Tier 1 League for its inaugural season, while the other three will remain in the KIJHL Tier 2 league for the 2026-2027 campaign.

The 2025-2026 season will be played under the league’s existing structure, with its 21 members maintaining Tier 2 status.

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The Kamloops Storm have been approved to make the Tier 1 jump in 2026.

Storm owner Matt Kolle spoke to Marty Hastings of CFJC Today on Wednesday (March 19):

MH: What are some of the most significant impacts of the news that came down yesterday?
MK: It’s in everybody’s best interest to play the highest level of hockey you can.

Aside from the Western Hockey League, for us that’s Junior A Tier 1 hockey in Canada.

I’m excited because we’re able to compete to be the best in the province and we’re able to compete to be the best in Canada.

To have the opportunity for us as an organization and the players to play toward a national championship is huge. Those are where memories for the rest of your life are created.

MH: What was the difference between the teams accepted to Tier 1 and the ones who didn’t quite get there?
MK: It was marginal for some of those teams. There was a scale and a number. There were teams that finished very high in the evaluation, there were teams in the middle and teams at the bottom.

Some of those teams in the middle were really bordering on that top tier. They were close.

MH: Who makes the final call?
MK: BC Hockey will make the final approval in time, but BC Hockey’s expectation is that the KIJHL present its own application and right now that application includes 11 teams moving to Junior A Tier 1 and 10 teams participating in Junior A Tier 2.

It’s submitted to the KIJHL as presentation to BC Hockey. BC Hockey is hands-off in making the initial decision. Just like the PJ [Pacific Junior Hockey League]. The PJ made their submission for seven teams to move forward for this year. BC Hockey accepted that.

They’re going to accept a good-quality idea that’s best for 21 teams and right now it’s 11 and 10 pending adjustments based on teams reapplying and so on.

MH: What are the financial implications for you? Do you stand to benefit? Are there added costs?
MK: It’s a bit of both. When you go from 21 teams to 11 teams and you’re looking at creating a larger and more-games schedule, that means you’re going on multiple trips to the East Kootenays, multiple trips to the West Kootenays. Most certainly, your costs do increase. At the same time, you hope that with your product getting that much better, as far as quality of players and so on, your revenue jumps, as well.

MH: Is that from attendance?
MK: Attendance, partnerships. Seven years in to where we are today with the Kamloops Storm, we are more than financially sustainable. It’s something we’ve built over time through quality products, entertainment value and the community buying in to what we do.

To be honest, the 10 teams that are remaining [that did not receive Tier 1 approval], their schedule is going to increase, as well. One of the effects is all of our costs are probably going up, but we’re accepting that to play at the next level

MH: Will player fees go up?
MK: They could. As far as the Kamloops Storm, we’ve been on a freeze for three years and the plan is to do nothing differently.

MH: The year ahead, is it an important year for expansion? Why is the season ahead important?
MK: Everything we do right now is laying the foundation and the steps necessary to get to the two separate leagues and be able to function properly. So expansion, we want to add more teams to the league.

We have teams applying to move to Junior A Tier 1, but to make that happen we have to have expansion at the Tier 2 level. One of the key goals for the year is expansion, adding more teams to our league and program.

MH: Is that in time for next season?
MK: Absolutely. The goal is to get the process started immediately. Let’s encourage some of the current owners. Would current owners like to have, for lack of better words, a feeder program, have a Junior A Tier 2 team, as well as a Junior A Tier 1 team.

Open it up to the public in communities out there. Could Rossland have a team? Armstrong? What about Nakusp?

MH: For some of the teams who have not yet received Tier 1 status, but are still eligible to apply, will their applications be legitimately considered?
MK: Absolutely. Some of those teams were right on the cusp. Those teams will reapply and I’m pretty sure those teams are going to put their best foot forward. They know what they have to do to put the best application forward.

MH: Is the restructuring causing friction?
MK: Absolutely. You know what, it was expected. From the day we heard the opportunity for Junior A Tier 1 hockey was there, a room full of 21 people, it was a pretty uncomfortable room.

Everybody partook in the process. We all understood. But it’s a hard pill to swallow. There are 11 of us who are joyed right now. We’re moving up to Junior Tier 1 and all the benefits of that, and there are the teams that were just shy, that had the expectation of being there and the will to be there. It’s a lot tougher pill to swallow, hence the startup for this coming season just wasn’t there. There are Is to be dotted, Ts to be crossed.

We’ve got to make sure structurally and legally we’re in a position to make the move and have everybody function well.

MH: Are there financial incentives for new expansion teams to join the league?
MK: I think it’s more community pride. Having a junior hockey team, especially in these smaller communities, it becomes the fabric of the community.

To encourage it, yeah, there will be some reduced costs to bringing a new team into the league. We want to encourage it. It’s only better for hockey in Canada, hockey in British Columbia to have more towns having junior hockey teams

MH: The national championship part of this, is anything set in stone about what the Tier 1 teams will be playing for?
MK: At this point, everything is a work in progress. Our league executive has had meetings with the Canadian Junior Hockey League. They know what our intentions are and I would say there is work going into becoming an addition to the CJHL and participating in the national championships.

MH: What are your thoughts on your staff going forward as you make the jump?

MK: This is Matt Kolle’s belief. I think our coaching staff trumped 90 per cent of what the BCHL had. The resources in Kamloops are ridiculously good. Fish [Storm head coach Andrew Fisher] has done a great job as coach. He’s been with us for seven years. He’s having success. Why would I stray from that? His support cast, the Jassi Sanghas Steve Gaineys, Ed Pattersons, Chris Murrays, Don Hays, these guys help us out all the time. They’re part of what we do,so I don’t think I would change a thing.