Victoria Royals withdraw Memorial Cup bid

The Lethbridge Hurricanes’ odds for landing the 2020 Memorial Cup just got a bit better.

Of course, so did the Kamloops Blazers’ and Kelowna Rockets’.

On Monday, the Victoria Royals announced they were pulling out of the bidding for the 2020 Memorial Cup and instead focusing on the 2023 event.

“I know the bid committee has been working on this now for a few months. There has been a lot going on behind the scenes and under the radar in assessing what our bid would look like for 2020 and whether or not we think it’s the right year to go. I know the bid committee has determined they’re going to focus on 2023,” said Royals general manager Cam Hope to Marlon Martens of The Zone 91.3 in Victoria.

Hope pointed to two factors to keep in mind when hosting a Memorial Cup.

“The first is it’s a once-in-ageneration opportunity for community to host it. Every hockey generation gets one shot at it and everybody wants to be the very, very best. Not just win the bid, but win the bid in a way that the Memorial Cup you put on is the best one that has ever been put on. I think we’re close and I think it’s possible we could win this bid for 2020, but the truth of it is there are a number of boxes that I think we’ll tick much better three years down the road, everything from our club and building of the club. I think we’ll be competitive in 2020. But (with) the venue, there are some changes we want to make to the arena that would enhance it for the fans and for everybody and the community.”

Victoria and Vancouver are also the hosts of this year’s World Junior Championship.

“We are just about to embark on a wonderful World Junior Tournament and it’s a significant ask of our fans to buck up every year for season tickets, which they do and our base grows every year, and then to go to that market and ask them to pay a notinsignificant amount for World Juniors and then ask them again the following season to buck up again for a big tournament like the Memorial Cup,” said Hope. “Those things are all factors I think we could overcome, but when you combine them all together we have to think about the reality of the very best time to bid.”

Last week, Lethbridge City Council voted 6-1 in favour of granting a request of $1 million by the Hurricanes 2020 Memorial Cup Bid Committee to provide $750,000 in cash plus $250,000 in in-kind funding should the team get the winning bid when it’s announced Oct. 3.