The Swift Current Broncos held their AGM on Tuesday, and the numbers were as expected; large, negative, and tinted with a hefty dose of COVID-19 uncertainty.

The number that everyone will point to is of course $791,000. That's the net loss for the organization for the 2019/2020 financial year.

Coming into the second year of a post-championship rebuild slump, a number of external factors, such as COVID, also combined to make what was already expected to be a challenging year financially into something decidedly more.

Trent McCleary, Chair of the Board, tried to put the large number into context, stressing that the Broncos were far from the only team in that position.

"We're all in a situation that it's a fight to survive. And that's where we need the community support. We need the fans. Like Gary Bettman said in the (NHL) Finals last night, we can't wait for the fans to come back."

That was a sentiment echoed by Director of Business Operations Nathan Macdonald, who talked about the importance of getting back to the ice in a sustainable way.

The Broncos had initially projected to have an operating loss that was within what they called a "reasonable range of expectations" and considered it to be a reflection of the decrease in attendance as the team rebuilds. Average attendance was down roughly 400; dropping to just under 2,000 per game. Gameday ticket sales dropped by 24 percent and overall gate attendance dropped to 39,605; down considerably from the previous season's 53,904.

Financially, however, it wasn't all doom and gloom.

"We have some absolutely fabulous sponsors in this town. Corporate sponsors that have stepped up" McCleary said. "We don't know when we're going to play, will you sponsor us when we do play. And they've come through. So we have tremendous sponsorships throughout the community, throughout (and) throughout the southwest."

He talked as well about being a part of the community, highlighting the teams fundraising efforts for various charities, with the total amount of community engagement from players and staff reaching in excess of 500 hours.

Neither McCleary nor Macdonald shy away from the fact that it's going to be difficult, but that the plan for recovery off-the-ice includes much more of that; engaging the community to get excited about a young group of players as they develop as a team.

There is time for that, as MacDonald pointed out.

"We're actively trying not to touch our nest-egg through this. And that's one of the things that we want to keep aside and never hopefully ever have to touch. That's what a lot of our focus has been on at this point in time. Because we feel that once we have to start dipping into that, that's when we're going to start looking at being a couple of years away from trouble."

He added that they've had the support in previous years, and he's cautiously optimistic that that support is there again, helping them not need to dip into that nest egg built from previous years' profitability, since doing so would necessarily engage a 'ticking clock' of sorts; a time limit to return to profitability before the nest-egg ran dry.

The WHL had been aiming for a hopeful return to play date in December, but require several permissions from the various governing health authorities in order to make that happen. There has been no update on whether those approvals have come.