The Maine Nordiques will not play at The Colisée this season.

Mill Town Sports and Entertainment, which manages The Colisée, announced this week it could not reach a new deal with the Nordiques.

“We’ve been talking for several weeks,” Mill Town Sports and Entertainment President Nate Bostic said. “I’d say since the first of this month, and we felt like we presented a really good offer for (them to) stay here, and it wasn’t able to work out the way we had planned.”

Bostic added that the Nordiques would need to pay off their debts to Lewiston in order to return.

According to the city, Shift Sports and Entertainment  — which owns the Maine Nordiques — owes $7,605.09 for water and sewer, $264 for sprinkler, and $16,072.23 for police/security/alarm. City officials said Shift Sports and Entertainment are up to date on taxes owed.

The Nordiques would also need to pay salaries owed to The Colisée employees and staff for their work during the 2024-25 season.

“I wouldn’t say it’s a plethora of employees,” said Nick Skerlick said, a coach and general manager of the Maine Nordiques. “The real story should be that you have people willing to take a stab at a pretty hard lease and a violent utility bill to make this work. I have to give my praises to Shift Sports, the group that I’m employed by. I also have to give my praises to Mill Town Sports, because it’s not an easy task. You could fill that building with 3,000 people a night; it’s still going to be a tough challenge. That’s kind of what I guess the community and both these management groups have been facing.”

The Maine Nordiques were an expansion franchise in the North American Hockey League, a Tier II junior hockey league, and called The Colisée home since its inception during the 2019-20 season.

Skerlick said that in talking to the league, the team still intends to play in 2025-26, it’s just a matter of where. He added he’s not a part of any conversations about playing at Norway Savings Bank Arena in Auburn. There’s a team event this weekend at a summer hockey tournament in Massachusetts.

“It’ll be the first time this team’s on the ice together down at the Chowder Cup,” said Skerlick.

Bostic understands some fans might be frustrated with the Nordiques not returning to Lewiston.

“There’s always going to be a little blowback, but we’re really excited in the direction we’re going, everything that we’re doing here at The Colisée is community first,” he said. “Shift wasn’t fit at this point to stay in this community and be able to pay their bills and have a good working relationship with local businesses in the arena.”

Mill Town Sports and Entertainment announced last week that another junior team, the Lewiston MAINEiacs, will begin play at The Colisée for the 2025-26 season. They will play in the United States Premier Hockey League’s Tier II junior hockey league, the National Collegiate Development Conference. That’s the same league that included the Twin City Thunder, which called Norway Savings Bank Arena home from 2019-24.

“I think everyone’s affected right now,” Skerlick said. “Quite frankly, the players are affected, the fans are affected, the management groups are affected. Like I said, for me, with all my friends and family over at that rink, I know, of course, I want to see them succeed. I guess in my highest hopes, it was going to be with the Nordiques there as they start their journey, because I do believe in what they’re going to do, and I do believe in what Shift was trying to do.”

Staff Writer Andrew Rice contributed to this report