Hamilton with Andrew Cristall Photo credit: Steve Dunsmoor

By Regan Bartel

Team targeting at making bid in 2026

‘We still feel it is owed to us’ GM Bruce Hamilton on Memorial Cup

Apr 10, 2023 | 6:00 AM

Attendance took a dip when the Kelowna Rockets played two playoff home games last week.

The average attendance Tuesday and Wednesday against the Seattle Thunderbirds was 3,456 fans over the two evenings.

That is down 20 percent from the regular season, where the team averaged 4,305 patrons per game in 34 home dates.

“I think when you finished where we did, I think that has a little bit to do with it, GM Bruce Hamilton told RocketFAN. “Historically the first round is a bit of a challenge unless you have Connor Bedard in your building.”

While alarming, the Rockets were working with two mid-week games, which is never ideal, plus the team was down 0-2 in the series after back-to-back losses in Seattle in games one and two.

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By comparison, Seattle also saw a slight drop in attendance when compared to the regular season, down three percent in the opening two games.

Portland slumped five percent, while Everett was down a whopping 43 percent in the playoffs when the team averaged over 58 hundred fans during the regular season.

The playoffs saw just 3,305 attend games three and four in an opening-round series against the Portland Winterhawks.

Saskatoon saw the biggest jump thanks to Connor Bedard and the Regina Pats, with a 132 percent uptick from the regular season.

Prince George was also up 61 percent with over 44 hundred fans taking in the opening two playoff games against the Tri-City Americans.

Meantime, the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League has banned fighting.

You won’t see it for the start of next season after league governors elected to ban it.

How will that impact the Western Hockey League, or Ontario Hockey League moving forward?

“I don’t think the Quebec league is mandating that rule, the Quebec government is mandating that rule”, Hamilton added. “We play by NHL rules and will continue to play by NHL rules. I don’t foresee that coming and fighting is down so much as it is, we are going to continue doing what we do. We are partners with the NHL, so very few of their rules are not used in our league.”

With Kamloops hosting the Memorial Cup next month, Hamilton says he will attend the event mainly as a fan of junior hockey.

The Chairman of the WHL Board of Governors says the Blazers will do a terrific job of hosting the high profile tournament.

“Our league is excited about having it there [Kamloops],” Hamilton added.

With an American-based team from Ontario winning the bid to host the high-profile tournament in 2024, the room for optimism among teams in the WHL’s US Division has increased significantly.

“Saginaw [Michigan] getting it is a huge thing for everybody that has a team in the States”, Hamilton offered. “It appears we have the national sponsorships sorted out, so now it can cross the border and not affect who the title sponsor of it is. I think the American teams will be bidding on it for sure in the future.”

In the past, Portland, Seattle, and Spokane have hosted.

How about Kelowna bidding in the near future, again, after winning the right to host it in 2020, only to see it canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic?

“I think when it [Memorial Cup hosting possibility] comes back in 2026. if our building meets the standards and the codes, I think it would be something interesting,” Hamilton concluded. “We will certainly be through the cycle, so we should be retooled and ready to go in a hurry. We still have issues that need to be settled within the building so we can bring that event back.

“We still feel it is owed to us, and somewhere down the line that opportunity will come back to us.”

Bruce has a brief chat with Regan on Kelowna10. Check out the video here.