Lethbridge For 2013??

Congratulations to the Brandon Wheat Kings for hosting a fantastic Memorial Cup!

The Wheaties may not have won the tournament, but from what I've been told by people who did attend a game or two, the Brandon organization put on a great 10 day show. So does awarding the Memorial Cup to a small market team open the door for teams like Lethbridge to host in the future? Many are saying yes. Gregg Drinnan from the Kamloops Daily News, who covered the entire event in Brandon reported on his blog recently that WHL Commissioner Ron Robison said the Wheat Kings have demonstrated that smaller-sized junior hockey markets are more than capable of hosting an event of this nature. Robison also stated on Gregg's blog that he looks forward to that interest being expressed in future bids.

It's already been mentioned on a few sports blogs that Saskatoon, Kelowna, and Lethbridge are expressing interest in terms of hosting the Memorial Cup the next time is comes to the WHL in 2013. So, as for the Hurricanes, I decided to go right to the top and ask for myself. I spent some time on the phone today talking with Brian McNaughton, the President of the Lethbridge Hurricanes Board of Directors. He, along with a few others from Lethbridge took in some of the games and the events in Brandon the past couple of weeks. Here's the interview I did with him:

Pat: Brian, you attended parts of the Memorial Cup in Brandon. Now that you've been there and took a look at what they did to put that event on and with Lethbridge being pretty much double the population, what it does say about smaller market teams hosting the Memorial Cup?

Brian: "Brandon did an outstanding job. They proved, number one that a small market can do it. They've shown our league and the entire CHL and the national media that. The event was incredibly successful."

Pat: You've attended a few Memorial Cups the last few years, where does Brandon rank in terms of what they managed to put on?

Brian: "Well, I've been to Kelowna and I was in London when they held it and I think Brandon did as good a job or even better. Those other places did a very good job as well, but in my opinion Brandon has taken the Memorial Cup to a whole new level"

Pat: The fact that Brandon did such a good job hosting the event, does this really open the door for the smaller market teams, like the Lethbridge Hurricanes to host this event in the future?

Brian: "There's no doubt. I think they (Brandon) have proved that it's a big event in their community. It was a Brandon-driven, southern Manitoba event. I was in Winnipeg actually for another event, at it was front page news in the Winnipeg market as well. It became a southern Manitoba event and I believe this is what smaller market can do."

Pat: It's been rumoured for months now that the Lethbridge Hurricanes will take a stab at bidding for the 2013 Memorial Cup. Given our renovations going on at the ENMAX Centre and a steadily growing population, where is the organization in that process right now?

Brian: "Our board put together a committee about four months ago to begin looking at this, so it's not something we've just started. We went to Brandon to see what was involved. Our board will get a report this week as to what what we believe is involved with hosting a Memorial Cup. We will begin to put together a package and see if we can garner the support to bid on this. We're highly committed to going through that process. We ultimately believe that southern Alberta would support this event and that would put us in a position to put forward a bid."

Pat: Do you believe Lethbridge could put this on?

Brian: "I think we meet virtually every criteria. We've got the facilities, parking, etc. This would be the biggest event every hosted in Lethbridge. I think we all know Lethbridge rallies around big events. It would be no different than how southwestern Manitoba rallied around Brandon's event."

Pat: What type of economic shot would this give to Lethbridge if we happen to get the event in the future?

Brian: "Well, the host committee in Brandon indicated the immediate benefit was going to be 12 to 13 million dollars and beyond that there are larger benefits. I absolutely believe that would also be the immediate benefit to southern Alberta."

So there you go! That should give you a bit of an idea on what the Hurricanes have planned for the future. Certainly something very positive for this organization to shoot for going forward!

Thanks,
Pat