Almost a month after Victoria confirmed its interest in hosting Hockey Day in Canada 2024, an announcement about the event is set to be made at Ship Point.
On June 5, Ron MacLean will make the announcement at 4:30 p.m. on CBC during the Stanley Cup Playoffs, then a news conference will be held the following day at 1 p.m. at Ship Point.
On hand for the Victoria event will be John Wilson, chair of the Victoria Hockey Legacy Society; Joel Darling, executive producer of Scotiabank Hockey Day in Canada; Victoria hockey representatives; and provincial and municipal officials.
On May 10, Keith Wells, executive director of Victoria’s Sport Tourism Commission, told CHEK News the organizers had reached out to him last year.
“CBC and SportsNet reached out to us this fall and said we’ve never had this event on the far west coast or in a market as big as Victoria. Would you entertain this?” said Wells.
“And we thought, well, yeah, that sounds pretty good.”
The newly formed Victoria Hockey Legacy Society spearheading the bid had asked the City of Victoria for $100,000 and services totalling $100,000, including use of city staging, bleacher equipment, parking lots at Ship Point, staffing and logistics.
On May 11, council unanimously voted to allocate the funding to bring the event to Victoria.
Laura Brougham
