Royals aim to host Memorial Cup

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05-18-2012, 10:01 AM
pontcanna

Royals aim to host Memorial Cup

CLEVE DHEENSAW Around the WHL

Royals’ brass want to host national major junior championship

The Memorial Cup, the 2012 edition of which begins today in Shawinigan, Que., will eventually be held in Victoria if RG Properties gets its way.

“Of all the things on our to-do list, hosting the Memorial Cup is at the very top of that list,” said Dave Dakers, president of sports and entertainment for RG, which owns the Victoria Royals of the Western Hockey League and operates Save-on-foods Memorial Centre.

“We will not be satisfied until we host the Memorial Cup in Victoria. It would be a great event for the city,” added Dakers, who is also president of the Royals.

The next Memorial Cup scheduled for the WHL is 2013 in Saskatoon. The next open dates for the WHL to host are 2016 and 2019.

THE BEAR BECKONS: Speaking of the major-junior post-season, of which the Memorial Cup is the pinnacle, the Royals could be in Bear Mountain Arena next spring to start the WHL playoffs because of the 2013 Ford world men’s curling championships to take place in the Memorial Centre.

“We have a bigger obligation to this city and this market,” said Dakers, as to why a world championship must and should trump the anchor tenant.
The “buzz and demand” to get into the smaller Bear facility might turn out to be special in and of itself, noted Dakers.

WHOA NELLY: Forward Logan Nelson of the Royals, who combines skill with a healthy dose of physicality, is among the 105 players invited to the NHL draft combine May 28-June 2 in Toronto. The native of Minnesota is the 73rd-ranked North American skater for the 2012 draft and will undergo a battery of on- and off-ice tests and interviews as NHL teams clock, observe, poke, prod, measure and analyze the top draft prospects.

The quick-silver forward Steven Hodges of Delta, the other Royals player ranked for the draft at No. 85 North American skater, did not receive a combine invite.

Of the players invited, 78 are North American-based skaters and 10 goalies and 14 are European skaters and three goalies.
The NHL draft is June 22-23 in Pittsburgh. Regardless of being picked or not, Nelson and Hodges are both expected to return to play in Victoria next season.
05-19-2012, 08:59 PM
the Royal Flush

we will get it in 2019...Red Deer 2016.
05-23-2012, 12:36 AM
The Wheatiemaniac

Quote:

Originally Posted by the Royal Flush

we will get it in 2019...Red Deer 2016.

Umm....not to be snide or negative, but if that is the plan then you both have some monumental work to do on your on ice product.
05-23-2012, 10:25 AM
the Royal Flush

Quote:

Originally Posted by The Wheatiemaniac

Umm....not to be snide or negative, but if that is the plan then you both have some monumental work to do on your on ice product.

Most Major Junior teams go through 2-3 rebuilds in a 6 years period so I'm not worried about it. Thanks again for giving us that 1st rounder(Reddekopp) for Sundher.

As for Memorial Cup venues. Brandon was a nice town to spend about 48 hours in(Royal Artillery Museum(Shilo),Commonwealth Air Training Museum and Hughes WW1 sites are must sees) but after that it got a little boring. You can spend two weeks in Victoria and the Island and still have plenty to do...the people that live in Brandon were a blast to hang with!
06-04-2012, 11:18 AM
rednex50

Ya, you just got to remember to bring a boatload of cash...cuz the Island is expensive (hotels, food etc.) Thank goodness at least now the Nature Parks are free to go to...before you had to pay to enter some and pay to park...and never see a single Ranger or Attendant at the Park (the reason why we were to pay for all this stuff in the first place).

Not saying that Victoria wouldn't be able to put on a great show...I'm pretty sure they can, but places like Peterborough, London, and Sudbury for instance (smaller centres than Victoria), I find they have more options available to the variety of fans who would be in attendance. Yes, they should be in attendance for multiple games, but there will be days where they want to get away from the rink, explore, site see without having to rob an ATM first.

I've been to Victoria about 9 times. They have some great, but expensive, fish 'n chip spots, great views and walking paths out in Oak Harbour, the Oak Harbour Inn is in my Top 5 places to stay the night (every room was designed and furnished different from each room in the place, plus the nightly entertainment in the basement..laughed my ass off so hard I thought I ruptured my spleen), but the truth is, the least expensive part of that would the ferry rides...OUCH! The "average" hockey fan wouldn't be able to go and attend these festivities. Peterborough for instance has Hotel/Motel rooms starting at $45/night about 9 blocks from the Memorial Centre. I am pretty sure you can't find anything in Victoria for less than a "C" note for single occupancy, unless you are truly slumming it.

Now before anyone says that I am a Victoria hater because they now have the team I was a fanatic about since their creation from the League, Chilliwack isn't/wasn't ready to host the Mem Cup for several reasons. Not including the on-ice product (cuz we all can agree that it wasn't anywhere close enough to host a Square Dance yet alone the Mem Cup, Chilliwack doesn't have the infrastructure in place to host such an event. We have 2 hotels (Best Western and Coast Hotels) and 2 motels (1 down town, and one nicknamed "the crackhouse" just off the freeway). In fact, the City within the last year just took 2 "Inns" out of circulation just outside of Downtown (Days Inn is to be converted to a Drug/Alcohol Rehab and Mental Health Contact Centre - which also happens to be within a hop skip and a jump from 3 schools, a day care, YMCA and a bar and liquor store...as well as one across the street which was just leveled to a week ago to allow the church there more parking lot space. - yes I am very critical of my City Council). With all the "we gotta rebuild downtown" talk, and "bring in the tourists to show off this wonderful place" everyone has forgotten or overlooked...where will everyone sleep? To host the Mem Cup, you need to expect between 15 and 20,000 visitors to your city for a 2 week span. This doesn't include any other festivals, art culture or sporting events being held in that time period. So Chilliwack would need AT LEAST 4 more hotels just to be able to house such an event. Then we get to parking. City Council is soooo retarded...the new Bingo and Gaming Hall has a 500 occupancy limit, so in their minds, they need 500 parking stalls (because no one will ever take buses or come with a friend(s) in the same vehicle apparently), however the Prospera Centre including standing room tickets holds just over 5200. So...by that logic, we should have 5200 parking stalls either on the site, or within a reasonable walk. I believe however, if you include the entire Townsend Park parking lot, Prospera parking, parking out by the curling rink (and yes, they added that Arts Centre in what used to an overfill parking lot eating up some valuable parking spots) you don't even have 1500 stalls. Overflow is now out on Spadina and the Landing Centre and Evergreen Hall - all at the edge of what I consider reasonable walking distance when you think of kids and stuff...but what happens if the Arts Centre has an event? Or the Landing Centre? or a Curling tourney? Or better yet, Football being played at Townsend park and they lock off the parking lot to the hockey venue because of that?

City leaders (and I don't care who or what city they are from), have to realise that an event like this is not just for the ones who crap out $20 bills and drive Stupid Useless Vehicles (aka SUV's) at 140 KM/h without a care in the world about finances, the world or anything. You have to plan for people who would show up in a 15 year old van, with 3 or 4 kids, who use the Memorial Cup as their one and only family vacation for the year. There are more people struggling to make ends meet than there are who wipe their butts with $20's. Its the Blue Collar families who makes these events successful. Lets not forget these people when you are putting plans together for a Mem Cup bid. Remember the world is 95/5. Sure it would be nice to get the money from the 5%'ers, but 5%'ers don't fill areans...thats the 95%'ers. Maybe I should go into politics just for that reason, so the 95%'ers no longer feel ignored or taken for granted.