The quest for the cup

By Joel Wittnebel/The Oshawa Express

Rumblings in Ontario, inklings from the west and silence in the east.

It seems the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League (QMJHL) may be a little slighted by the fact that the Canadian Hockey League (CHL) has opened up the bidding process for the 2018 Memorial Cup to teams across Canada, when rightfully it should have gone to a Quebec club, at least according to the tourney’s rotating schedule.

However, due to the grand occasion of the tournaments 100^th anniversary, the CHL announced last month that all teams would have the opportunity to bid for a chance to be host, confirming the rumours that had been circling in the junior hockey world for quite some time.

Now, with intentions to be made clear by September, a collection of Ontario Hockey League (OHL) teams have gone public with their intent to be the winning host, Oshawa being one and Ottawa being a second. The Kitchener Rangers have also expressed interest, although their interest may not be as strong as the others.

Moving forward, the OHL will receive the bids from its interested teams and will have the task of narrowing down the selections to a final two to be submitted to the CHL’s national site selection committee. The committee will make a final decision in February.

If all three teams listed above submit bids, the OHL will be looking at numerous factors, a process that will be a microchosm of the final process the CHL will undergo when making its final decision next year.

Narrowed down, the main criteria will include: the skill level of the host team, the facilities and nearby amenities, as well as any financial support from the municipality and the potential return on investment for the CHL.

“I think we’re going to be in pretty good shape,” Oshawa Generals owner Rocco Tullio tells The Oshawa Express.

“With our team and with the additions of hotels in Oshawa now and the new video board, I think we’ve got just as good an opportunity as anybody else.”

Below, The Oshawa Express compares the trio of interested OHL bidders to determine whether the City of Oshawa and the Oshawa Generals really stand a chance.

Competitive team

The format of the CHL’s Memorial Cup tournament, a four-team round robin with the three league champions and host team, has been questioned for a long time.

Some see an unfair advantage for the host team, who get a shot at the cup no matter what their final position is during league play.

To quell some of this dissatisfaction in recent years, the CHL has made it clear that to host the tournament, the team must be able to compete with the best, even if they do not end the season as league champions.

For the Oshawa Generals, that means a quick bounce back from their 2015 Memorial Cup victory in Quebec City.

Following the victory, the club lost more than half of its roster to NHL clubs or overage status, and last year it showed. Barely limping into the last playoff position, the Gens were pushed easily aside by the first-place Kingston Frontenacs in the opening round.

However, there are a few bright sides for the Gens going into this season and for 2018. At that time, they will be in their third year of a rebuild, and the signing of some promising draft picks in Serron Noel and goaltender Nathan Torchia, along with CHL import picks Renars Krastenbergs and Eeli Tolvanen, could have them looking like a contender once again.

Roger Hunt, the team’s general manager, is confident his club will be ready come 2018.

“I really do believe that,” he says.

“I think by ’18, we can be contending again and certainly if we were to win the bid, it would be a fantastic opportunity for our fans to see it right up close.”

For the Ottawa 67s, the club will also have some rebuilding to do prior to 2018 if they wish to remain competitive, although it could be said they are further along than the Generals.

Following last place finishes in both the 2012/2013 and 2013/2014 seasons, things started to turn around for Ottawa with a rebuild that began after their first-round selection of the talented Travis Konecny. That process could culminate in 2018.

In the past two seasons, the club has found themselves in the post-season, only to be pushed aside in the quarter finals by the Niagara IceDogs.

While the loss of forward Dante Salituro to the AHL could hamper the team, they have bolstered their back end with the recent pick-up of Peter Stratis.

For the Kitchener Rangers, putting together competitive teams has never really been an issue in recent years, with the club only missing the post-season once since 2010/2011, and while the club has not made it past the third round since 2008, that year they did make it to the Memorial Cup final, but lost to the Spokane Chiefs.

Judging by the lack of movement in the Rangers’ roster at this past year’s trade deadline, one could surmise the team is getting ready for a 2018 peak, as several players on the roster will be of veteran status including potential overagers in Jake Henderson, Mason Kohn and Doug Blaisdell.

Cash

Boiled down, the CHL is a business. On the front end, they are growing junior hockey in this country and grooming future NHLers, but there is always a focus on the cash.

It is rumoured that a successful host of the Memorial Cup should be able to guarantee a return for the CHL of more than $2 million, and if that does not come to fruition, the team or the city must pony up.

In 2013, Saskatoon paid the CHL $668,000 after they failed to meet the $3.5 million promised in their bid.

Cooperation between the host team and the municipality is also a key factor. The Windsor Spitfires, who will host the tournament for this upcoming season, bolstered their bid with a $30,000 contribution from the City of Windsor.

For Oshawa, Mayor John Henry and council have made it clear they are willing to work with the Generals to bring the tourney to the city.

“We would be happy to have that discussion and see what they’re looking for from us,” Henry says.

However, any financial commitment from the city could be a hard sell after council poured more than $750,000 into the new jumbotron upgrade, as well as recently using a large portion of its debt room to fund a new LED street lighting project, which could make council’s purse strings a little tighter.

Regardless of the city’s contribution, the Gens have consistently shown they can bring out the fans, with the average attendance at games above 5,000 during the regular season. And with fans comes the money.

However, drawing fans is something the Rangers also do quite well, as 53,000 fans flocked to Kitchener when they hosted the tournament in 2008. In that year, they guaranteed the CHL a $1.8 million return – they earned $1.9 million.

And with Ottawa, wooing the CHL is nothing new for owner Jeff Hunt, who was a key factor behind the club’s successful bid in 1999.

A dutiful host

And while drawing fans to the city is crucial, having somewhere for them to eat, sleep and play is also a key factor for the CHL. It is this straw that may be the one that breaks the camel’s back for Oshawa.

In Kitchener, the city of more than 250,000 has a plethora of hotels, a number of them within a short drive of the team’s home rink, the Kitchener Memorial Auditorium. For Ottawa, the nation’s capital, there is no lack of hotels, restaurants and bars for fans to revel in.

Oshawa, however, may not be able to handle the large influx of people that comes with hosting the largest tournament in junior hockey.

For the last 10 years, more than 64,000 people on average have come out for the tournament, with the highest total coming in 2007 when Vancouver hosted, which saw more than 121,000 people come to the west coast city. The lowest came five years later in 2012, when Shawinigan hosted and just over 40,000 turned up.

The OHL is no stranger to large turnouts either – when Mississauga hosted in 2011, nearly 50,000 people showed up, and when the London Knights held the tournament in 2014, more than 70,000 came out to watch.

With such a large influx of people, hotel rooms will become a hot commodity.

In Oshawa, Mayor Henry is convinced the additions of downtown hotels solves the issue, which has prevented the city from hosting national sporting events in the past.

“The biggest challenges, they’ve always said about Oshawa…was having no hotels available close by. Well, we’ve solved that problem,” he says.

However, the pair of hotels downtown, the La Quinta and the Holiday Inn Express, may only be a partial solution.

In Windsor, the city is expecting more than 500 hotel room bookings each night come tournament time. Oshawa downtown hotel rooms contain less than 200 rooms collectively.

However, proximity to Highway 401 and other nearby hotels in the Best Western on Bloor Street or the Quality Inn Hotel and Suites may sweeten the deal.

The tale of three arenas

Finally, the arena itself, the building that will be at the centre of everything for more than 10 days of hockey action.

It is here that Ottawa holds a distinct advantage, with two facilities to choose from in the Canadian Tire Centre and TD Place.

The Canadian Tire Centre, current home of the Ottawa Senators, can hold more than 20,000 people with standing room and while already being a state-of-the-art NHL facility, it underwent a major $15-million renovation in 2014 to include a new 4K videoboard, food outlets, along with metal detectors and bag scanners, which may be an asset with growing security concerns.

Even if the 67s needed to host at TD Place, their current home arena, the rink holds more than 10,000 with temporary seating and also received a new jumbotron in 2014. The arena has also hosted previous Memorial Cups in 1972 and 1999 when the 67s won.

Kitchener is in much the same boat. While the oldest of the facilities, built in 1950, the place has been expanded since, having recently undergone a massive renovation and can now hold nearly 7,800 people. Along with hosting the Memorial Cup in 2008 (as well as 1962, 1975 and 1984) it has a deep history of hosting international events, including the CHL top prospects game and the OHL All-Star game.

For Oshawa, the General Motors Centre would be the smallest facility in the group, holding only 6,125 people with standing room. However, the central location in the city’s downtown, an asset it holds over the other facilities, may boost its standing. Its new videoboard, to be unveiled this upcoming season, and its history of hosting events like a Road to the World Juniors pre-tournament game in 2014 and weightlifting and boxing events for the Pan Am Games in 2015, will also be crucial factors.

It has also been noted in a letter to the city that the Gens would be looking to add 500 more seats inside the arena as well as the addition of on-ice projection technology.

“We’ve demonstrated in the past when we host these events, we’re alway successful,” he says.

“We always sell them out and we do things first class.”

The same was said by Mayor Henry.

“The General Motors Centre is state-of-the-art, from an ability to broadcast. It’s already got a lot of the technology that they need already in the building,” he says.

Wrap-up

With all of that aside, it is clear that each of the three OHL organizations could play host to the tournament, which means it may come down to other complimenting factors that make the eventual successful bid attractive.

For Oshawa, it could mean highlighting that fact that they are the team with the most Memorial Cup victories among active clubs in the CHL, and they also hold the most league titles with 13. The club has also been labelled the most successful franchise in CHL history, graduating 184 alumni into the NHL, which is second in the league. The “once a General always a General” mantra may also come in handy as the team has a well publicized relationship with NHL greats who are alumni of the team, including John Tavares, Eric Lindros and Bobby Orr.

However, the Kitchener Rangers are a close second, with 140 NHLers being alumni of the team, with big names like Scott Stevens, Paul Coffey and Al MacInnis.

For Ottawa, along with being located in the nation’s capital, something that could hold meaning for the centennial of the Memorial Cup, the club will also be celebrating its 50^th anniversary that season and the country celebrating its 150th birthday.

Whatever the outcome, there is no doubt that the significance of hosting the event would not be lost on those in Oshawa.

“To have it right in our backyard, I think our city deserves it,” Hunt says.

“I think our fans deserve it and the whole region deserves it, but also our organization deserves it. We have a progressive ownership group and we’re going to do everything we can to try and land it here in Oshawa.”