There are few sporting events in Canada bigger than the Memorial Cup.
The national major junior hockey championship brings together four of the best teams in the country for a nine-day competition. The games are intense and entertaining, and each year numerous future NHL players showcase their skills for the fans.
Thanks to a friend in Regina, I was able to take in the game between the Western Hockey League champions, the Swift Current Broncos, and the Quebec League champs, the Acadie-Bathurst Titan, on May 19 in the Queen City.
(Side note: after watching the Titan play, I am convinced that my beloved Vancouver Canucks should take Titan defenceman Noah Dobson. He’s the big, mobile, intelligent defenceman we need).
And while I marvelled at the skill level of the young players on the ice, it left me wondering how long it would be before Estevan gets a national junior hockey tournament.
Obviously, the Memorial Cup is not an option. We don’t have a major junior hockey team here, and we don’t have a venue remotely close to big enough to host the tournament.
But the RBC Cup – the national junior A tournament – remains a realistic and logical option for Estevan.
In fact, there are likely few cities in the country that would be a better option for the RBC Cup than Estevan.
Estevan passed the test run – the 2016 Western Canada Cup – with flying colours. Our city was the first to make money at hosting the tournament. People who attended not only raved about the hockey, but about the arena, the host committee, and the community as a whole.
Any doubts that Estevan could host a tournament of that scale were erased.
You could make a case that the hockey for the Western Canada Cup was actually better than the RBC Cup, since the best teams in the country are typically in Western Canada. I know I’ve made that case.
But as far as prestige, recognition and attention from scouts, the national tournament exceeds its now-defunct western counterpart.
There’s obviously a lot that goes into hosting nationals. You need ticket sales, corporate support and a strong base of volunteers. While the RBC Cup has the same number of teams as the Western Canada Cup, you have a greater cost for nationals, because you’re responsible for getting the teams to Estevan.
Needless to say, it costs a lot to get a team from Atlantic Canada to Estevan for a tournament that lasts more than a week.
But Estevan showed during Western Canadians that it could make money on the big tournaments. And the RBC Cup has been a profitable venture in the past for cities that have hosted it, although the days of teams making big money off the tournament appear to be over.
Hosting the RBC Cup also make a big difference for teams on the ice. The last four host teams have reached the national final. Three of those teams won the national tournament.
It’s not a guarantee that you will be a national powerhouse if you host the tournament, but it is a tremendous asset when recruiting players to come to your team for that season, since they know they will be playing in a national tournament with scouts and others flocking to the games.
It certainly helps Estevan’s cause that the Bruins have taken a step forward as an organization in recent years. After years of being good but not great, the Bruins took a big step forward the last two seasons, reaching the semifinal in 2017 and coming within a game of winning the league in 2018.
The playoffs this year, with three sellouts and two more games with more than 1,700 people in attendance, have reaffirmed what we already knew: that there is strong support for junior hockey in Estevan.
Saskatchewan is also due to host the tournament. From 1996 to 2005, the tournament was in Saskatchewan three times. The Flin Flon Bombers, who play in the Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League, also hosted the tournament during that time. But since 2005, it has been in Saskatchewan just once, when Humboldt hosted it in 2012.
This is a tournament that works best in small cities, rather than large markets, where it gets lost in the shuffle of the other big events.
We’re due to have the tournament, not just in Saskatchewan, but in Estevan. We have the fan base, the corporate support and the arena to make it happen.
Hopefully, it’s just a matter of time.
