14,000 tickets sold for Teddy Bear Toss

[RunTheGoalie]

...As of last night. Add two full days of ticket selling, plus a walkup on Sunday, and can we break last year's attendance record for one of these games? Even with the NHL back?

Gonna be a fun game, and the Hitmen go into it on a three game winning streak after dominating Saskatoon for 58 minutes tonight.

[The_Vulk]

With luck, everyone will be bringing a teddy bear to toss.

Or, if one forgot, I heard you could purchase a teddy bear at the game to toss.

[Beaner]

14,000 Teddy Bears hitting the ice? Wow that will be quite the spectacle, hope the Saddledome has a front end loader to help get them off the ice.

[RunTheGoalie]

They had 16,000 fans last year, and just over 13,000 bears hit the ice.

Should be a similar crowd this year - I dont expect they would open the 300 level up this early in the year - and hopefully at least the same number of bears.

Two years ago (9000 bears) they pulled six Dodge Rams on the ice and had those things stuffed full to get the bears off. Even the drivers seats were crammed with bears.

They dont call it the "Worlds Biggest Teddy Bear Toss" for nothing.

From the game two years ago:

[RunTheGoalie]

And yes, you can purchase a bear from the Rainbow Society at the game for $10. That's how I usually do it. That way not only the bear goes to charity, but the cost of the bear does too.

[The_Vulk]

Talk about your double treat!

The Hitmen scored (and first) and over 13,600 teddy bears were collected.

And the Hitmen scored 5 or more goals! Hamburger (with the purchase of a drink) with a coupon from the ushers on the way out (while supplies last).

Sadly, not everyone was given a coupon (they ran out), and the franchise in question was told coupon only (game tickets not acceptible).

[Beaner]

The radio guys on Mojo just said that at the Portland game they collected over 20,000 bears the other night.

[RunTheGoalie]

The gamesheet for Fridays game says 21,067 teddy bears for Portland - with only 7700 in attendance. I dont wonder if Portland was padding their stats a little. Of course, all that matters is that 21,000 toys actually did make it to local charities.

[ScottyWazz]

In Portland, only 10,000+ hit the ice. The others were corporate donations.

Portland fans broke their own record of 7,790 stuffed animals set last season by tossing 10,742 on the ice Saturday night. Several corporate partners including Bank of the West, Fred Meyer, and Dollar Tree also donated thousands of stuffed animals making the grand total of 21,067

I have a feeling that if they are going to count the corporate donations, Cardel Homes and other sponsors will put that number over.

[The_Vulk]

According to the Hitmen Home page news:

Fans tossed 13,650 bears a new CHL Record.

Fans TOSSED!

I don't think corporate donations get included into the CHL record books.

But the Game summery on WHL.ca does record the Portland game of Nov.26 as:

GAME NOTES: 21,067 Teddy bears were collected in the annual teddy bear toss for local charities.

and the Calgary game Dec.4 as:

GAME NOTES: 13,650 STUFFED TOYS COLLECTED

Trying to verify on the CHL.ca 'record book' does not display a catagory for this.

Which is the record?