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pontcanna
07-08-2012, 12:27 AM
Victoria Royals to travel in style with customized bus

BY CLEVE DHEENSAW, TIMES COLONIST JULY 7, 2012 11:14 PM

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v373/zymurgy1/bus.jpg
Taylor Crunk, left, and Luke Harrison face off in front of the Victoria Royals' new bus at Save-on-Foods Memorial Centre.

Whoever thought a team hockey bus might be a candidate for the MTV reality show Pimp My Ride?

But the Victoria Royals newly-delivered bus — which sleeps 30 and comes complete with fridge/ freezer, two flatscreen TVs, MP3 plug-ins and Blu-ray disc player — might just qualify.

The cost of the bus is estimated at $650,000, but the team would not confirm price.

“It cost more than $500,000,” is all Royals president Dave Dakers would allow.

Anyway you cut it, it's a long way from those dent-marked, beat-up Bull Durham- and Slap Shot-era sports team buses of yore.

Dakers first got the idea during pro ECHL Victoria Salmon Kings days when he saw similar buses used by the Las Vegas Wranglers and Phoenix Roadrunners.

The bus will begin transporting the Western Hockey League's Royals beginning this coming season.

A used bus was gutted and interior of the shell retrofitted. Just getting it to Victoria from its retro-fit assembly site in Hueytown, Alabama, was a six-day cross-continental adventure. Wilson’s Transportation, which will provide the drivers and maintenance for the bus, flew maintenance-manager Jim Morrison down to Alabama. Morrison drove the bus back to Victoria.

But despite the 30 bunk beds, Morrison was able to sleep only one night in the bus because of the extreme high temperatures being experienced across the United States. It was so hot at night that the bus air conditioning couldn't keep up.

Because all the bus is taken up with living space — including restaurant-style leather banquette seating — it comes with a 20-foot trailer hooked behind that will carry the hockey equipment. The whole unit, bus and trailer, is 65 feet long.

“It’s a B.C. Ferries dream,” quipped John Wilson, owner of Wilson’s Transport.

But it will allow the Royals to arrive from away games at anytime overnight at the Tsawwassen ferry terminal and simply park the bus and await the 7 a.m. sailing while the players sleep in relative comfort.

Getting the high school-aged players to class first thing in the morning was a main consideration, said Dakers, not hotel room savings.

“With some of our transportation issues, this makes a lot of sense,” he said.

“This give us flexibility in travel and to arrive for road games as rested as possible. Coming home, the players will miss less days of school.”

It is believed to be the best bus in the WHL.