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Hockey tourney shooting for huge economic impact

'The economic impact will be very large for North Bay, with approximately 2000 participants, friends, and family attending, local restaurants and shops will be busy'
West Ferris arena empty
West Ferris is one of the rinks that the Challenge Cup will take over in early December.

Organizers fo the West Ferris Minor Hockey Association Challenge Cup tournament say their local hockey tournament will create a large economic impact by drawing a record amount of 44 teams to the city for the tournament which runs from December 8th to 10th.  

“About 31 of the participating teams are from out of town and will be staying at local hotels and eating at local restaurants, and booking a total of 590 room nights,” said Terry Thomason, chair of this year’s tournament with teams coming from Sault Ste. Marie in the west to Ottawa from the East.  

“The economic impact will be very large for North Bay, with approximately 2,000 participants, friends and family attending, local restaurants and shops will be busy,” he added. 

Running three sheets of ice from 8 a.m. to 10 p.m. daily, the tournament booked all available ice. 

In fact, organizers say the tournament tried to expand even further and run the tournament over two weekends but was unable to secure enough ice.  

“Because the tournament has expanded to 44 teams, we are already planning for the future on how we can expand within our current ice capacity,” said Thomason

Thomason says North Bay wants to be in the sports tourism business, but unfortunately, with our current arena availability, it’s difficult to become a larger event. 

"This year we had 18 teams on a waiting list and were full one month after opening the application.”   

Melinda Fry, Manager of Sports and Events with the city of North Bay, says the city has its hands tied with only four ice pads.  

“North Bay recognizes the positive impact of sports tourism and realizes the economic spin-off that it brings to our community,” said Fry in the release.  

“In addition to this, hosting sporting events also assists us in promoting our City as a destination for sport. We have a wide variety of facilitates and are able to host a multitude of sports and events. We would like to thank the volunteer organizers for running the Challenge Cup.  We look forward to working together on future hockey endeavors”.  

Thomason has said he has spoken with hotels and retailers to ask them how tournaments impact their business and they are thrilled that North Bay is hosting this tournament, "they know that sales will increase immensely throughout the weekend.”

Thomason says the estimated economic spinoff created by the tournament will be approximately $600,000 over three days as well as raising over $16,000 for West Ferris Minor Hockey Association. 

“The success of this tournament, as well as the WFMHA Early Bird Tournament, go a long way to help keep the cost of hockey down,” said Duquette.  

WFMHA has been able to have zero increases in their registration fees for the last two seasons. Minor hockey associations rely on the revenues from tournaments to help offset the cost and provide strong programs.”

North Bay will also be hosting the Bantam AA Northern Ontario Tournament of Champions as well as the Ontario Hockey Federation Championships in the spring. 

The tournament is also looking for volunteers and sponsors. 

Those who are interested in sponsoring or volunteering for this year’s event are to contact Terry Thomason at tina[email protected]



Chris Dawson

About the Author: Chris Dawson

Chris Dawson has been with BayToday.ca since 2004. He has provided up-to-the-minute sports coverage and has become a key member of the BayToday news team.
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