Courtenay among finalists in voting for Kraft Hockeyville title
Of course hockey arenas are cold. Isn’t that the point? But the Comox Valley Sports and Aquatics Centre is uncomfortably so. That was among the reasons that prompted the facility to throw its helmet into the fray for Kraft Hockeyville 2017.
So, too, the fact the Comox Valley Glacier Kings are the only team in the Vancouver Island Junior Hockey League without its own permanent home team dressing room or equipment storage area.
The Courtenay facility’s arguments proved persuasive enough that it has made the 10-rink national shortlist. It is the second time in two years an Island rink has done that. The Panorama Recreation Centre won Kraft Hockeyville 2015. The 2016 winner was Lumby, so B.C. will now go for the three-peat.
Five arenas from Western Canada and five from Eastern Canada have been shortlisted for 2017, including the Comox Valley rink, with each vying for the first prize of $100,000 in facility improvement and the right to host an NHL preseason game. All 10 finalists are guaranteed $25,000 in arena improvements.
The voting time period is tight and furious, with individuals 13-and-over allowed to vote multiple times. Voting commences Sunday at 6 a.m. PT and closes Monday at 9 p.m. PT. The voting site is khv2017.ca.
The top Western and Eastern vote-getters will face off against each other in another round of balloting later in the year. Both Western and Eastern finalists will each be guaranteed $100,000 in rink improvements, but only the winner will get to host the NHL preseason game.
Such is the overwhelming and central role of hockey in Canadian life, that the Kraft Hockeyville ‘playdowns’ have become a kind of cultural touchstone in the 11 years the competition has run.
Marsha Webb, governor and co-owner of the Glacier Kings, submitted the Comox Valley application. It hit a nerve with the selectors tasked with winnowing to the final 10 for 2017: “Hockey is inherited, passed down, learned and lived here. The Comox Valley is really a combination of four communities -- Courtenay, Comox, Cumberland and CFB Comox. Hockey binds us all and brings us together. We have inherited a passion for something that is truly as Canadian as maple syrup.”
If successful, the $100,000 in upgrades to the Comox Valley Sports and Aquatics Centre would go toward installing overhead heaters and to dressing room and spectator seating improvements.
The other four West finalists for 2017 are Didsbury and Maskwacis in Alberta and Ituna and Wilkie in Saskatchewan. The East finalists are Collingwood and Cobden in Ontario and Saint Ambroise, Que., O’Leary, P.E.I., and Bay Roberts, N.L.