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Hockey History
The Hamilton Forum – Chapter Two Once the pride of Hamilton, the 1974 Red Wings of the Ontario Hockey Association Major Junior A league was not the powerhouse it had been in the 1960s. The team was purchased by Nick Durbano in 1970, and the franchise had problems at the gate and on the ice. Durbano had also purchased the Barton Street Forum at the same time. The former Memorial Cup winners had a dismal showing for several years, mired in or near the cellar of the division during the Durbano ownership. Attendance at the Forum had also plunged, with a 1000-fan night a rare occurrence. Even after only two years of operation, Durbano was loosing money. “It costs about $125,000 a year to run this hockey club,” Durbano said in 1972. “And to break even you have to draw close to 2000 fans for every home game. On the hockey I’m losing. But the whole thing is self-sustaining because of college hockey, wrestling, the roller derby, public skating, and rental for recreational hockey. I couldn’t afford the hobby of a Junior A club.” At the time the Forum was up for sale, listed by the Hamilton real estate firm of Finochio and Cupido. Durbano was hoping to take his team to a new facility yet to be built on the Hamilton Mountain. The city was also applying pressure with its rezoning and rehabilitation of a large area of the north end of the city, known as the Gibson Neighborhood. The Forum was situated right in the middle of this redevelopment. “If this plan is approved and becomes a law before I can sell,” said Durbano,” then the sketches they’ve shown me indicate that Hamilton Forum will become a community center. In other words, the city will be expropriating it.” While the city’s plan never amounted to much, the Forum was still listed for sale. That sale took place n May of 1974. Brothers Mario and Ron Cupido, and Joe Finochio bought the then 60-year old facility along with the Red Wing franchise. Right from the start, the new owners were looking for another
location to house their new hockey team. While the new owners replaced boards, wire screenings with unbreakable glass and refurbished the dressing rooms, the Red Wings opened their 70-game 1974-75 season late in September against the Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds. The new owners were optimistic. “We’re going to run a first class organization,” noted Mario Cupido. “We’re going to make young hockey players want to come to Hamilton. “People who haven’t been in the Forum for years say they’ll be back. And I think with the kind of a team we’re going to have they’ll keep coming back.” The team did not have a good year, finishing 11th in the standings with a 16-49-5 record. And changing the team’s name from the Red Wings to the Fincups in the season did not give the franchise the boost it needed. The Fincups would be a Hamilton franchise for the next four seasons, even though it played in Saint Catharines for one year. The Red Wings name of the franchise, which started in 1960 after the club was renamed from the Hamilton Tiger Cubs, stayed with the club for 14 years until it became known as the Fincups, and several other names. The Red Wings name returned to Hamilton hockey in 2002 as the city’s Junior A hockey team. And the Forum? It was demolished in 1976.
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