CANBERRA Cavalry has announced it will acquire local ice hockey team, CBR Brave, in a deal, which it describes as the ACT’s first multi-sport franchise. 

The deal will see a staged transition over the 2019 season with the Cavalry to take on operational management of Brave immediately. A formal acquisition is set to take place later in the year. 

Cavalry CEO Donn McMichael has been appointed CEO of Brave during the transitional season and says the deal is a win for both organisations and both sports.

“The Cavalry moved to private ownership last year and now that our operational model for the Cavs is in place we see a natural opportunity to move to a dual-franchise model” he said.

“This allows for both teams to benefit from the dedicated resources of a single back-office team while leveraging the natural synergies that exist between the two sports and their fan bases.

“This model sees the Cavalry turn into a year-round operation and provides the Brave with an opportunity to continue to grow through increased and specialist sports management resources.

“The benefits will flow to players and fans of both teams given that this increases our scale”

One of Brave’s founders, Peter Chamberlain, says now is the right time to consider options to secure the long-term sustainability of a national ice hockey league team in the capital.

Brave was established in 2014 following the collapse of the Canberra Knights. CBR Brave founders – Peter Chamberlain, Jamie Wilson, Warren Apps and Mark Rummukainen – stepped in to rescue the team on the eve of the 2014 Australian Ice Hockey League season together with a group of players.

Since then, Brave has gone on to become a powerhouse in the Australian Ice Hockey League, selling out home games and landing a finals birth every year since the teams’ inception. The Brave are the current AIHL Champions and won a breakthrough title last year.

“The growth of the franchise across all measures has exceeded even our own expectations but it has become clear that if we want to continue that growth we need change our structure to allow the team to benefit from dedicated management resources,” Mr Chamberlain says. 

“We’ve always had a good relationship with the Cavalry and I think we both saw an opportunity to work together given the obvious synergies. The more we worked through it, the more it became clear that there was a bigger opportunity for both organisations.”