AttackSound
Junior Hockey Fan Since Birth
Not sure how. But I would love to see a format where even small market teams like Owen sound get a chance to host. Competitive team every year. Great ownership. Stable franchise. Fans that are second to none. A community that would jump at the chance and do anything to make everyone’s stay memorable. Only issue is small arena meaning chl doesn’t cash in big time. Well what’s wrong with rewarding small centres that are solid fixtures in the league every so often. Forget about the cash cow reward the franchise and it’s fans
I agree that the format of awarding teams as Memorial Cup hosts is a bit backwards of a process.
However considering it is a year prior to hosting there would have to be some major upgrades to the Bayshore before the CHL Memorial Cup hosting committee would even consider Owen Sound a viable city to host.
If the CHL hosting committee ever considers Owen Sound as a hosting city we will see massive changes to the Bayshore full capacity is close to 3,800 if the team was able to increase the building capacity and extend the roofs height to accommodate another 1,000 or so seats and add more private suites on the west side of the building then I believe that Owen Sound could be a viable market to make a compelling argument to make a bid on hosting an OHL year in the rotation of Memorial Cup tournaments.
Even if you take the financial side away from the equation of bidding to host the key to hosting is having a facility that would be able accommodate 4 cities teams including the host team as well as local and national media facilities for more then a single national televised game.
Owen Sound is a excellent market for smaller national events e.g. Super Series, Top Prospects Game, not to also add the massive local fan base the team has in which I have a hard time believing that STHs would surrender there seats for corporate sponsors for a whole week event in such a market. If Owen Sound could increase the building capacity to 5,000-7,000 then I could see Owen Sound bit.