(Image Credit: Contributed)

By Regan Bartel

Winning the right to host the 04 Memorial Cup

Paul Mitchell on the night Kelowna beat the odds

Mar 18, 2026 | 6:00 AM

More than twenty years later, Paul Mitchell can still feel the moment in his hands.

“My jaw hit the floor,” he said. “My hand is still sore from high-fiving.”

In the winter of 2002, Mitchell – a longtime Kelowna lawyer – stepped into one of the biggest challenges of his career. Alongside Bill Winters, he was named co-chair of the Kelowna Rockets bid to host the 2004 Memorial Cup.

On paper, the task sounded simple. Convince the governors of the Western Hockey League that Kelowna could stage one of the biggest events in junior hockey.

In reality, Mitchell knew how steep the climb would be.

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“We were up against Calgary and Vancouver, with bigger venues,” he said. “Back then, a lot of the votes were monetarily based. You had to guarantee profits that were shared across the league. So we knew we were in tough.”

Still, when Rockets owner Bruce Hamilton asked Mitchell to help lead the bid, there was no hesitation.

“No, God no,” Mitchell said with a laugh. “I thought it would be exciting. I was hopeful we’d get it… so I said absolutely, and off we went.”

Instead of trying to out-muscle bigger markets, Kelowna leaned into something different.

“Our pitch was to have a festival for the whole town,” Mitchell said. “And luckily enough, they didn’t go with the money. They went with our pitch.”

The preparation was intense. The bid book alone was three to four inches thick. Venues. Transportation. Security. Community events. Volunteers. Everything.

“We had about 10 or 15 people in the presentation,” Mitchell recalled. “We did a bunch of dry runs. Everybody practiced. We were as ready as we could be.”

When the Rockets’ delegation climbed onto the team bus and headed to Vancouver, the mood was hopeful, but realistic.

“You’re trying to be upbeat,” Mitchell said. “But we knew we were in tough.”

The presentation was held at Pacific Coliseum. The room was packed. Vancouver supporters filled the building. It was their turf.

After Kelowna finished its pitch, Mitchell remembers the walk that followed.

“We were kind of moping,” he said. “We didn’t think we’d get it.”

Then the league commissioner at the time, Ron Robison, stepped to the microphone.

“And he announced the winner was Kelowna,” Mitchell said. “My jaw hit the floor.”

From one side of the building, silence.

From the Kelowna side, an eruption.

“There was deathly silence from the Vancouver area,” Mitchell said. “But the Kelowna contingent made up for it.”

For Mitchell, the win carried even more meaning because of the people beside him.

“How good did I feel for Bruce [Hamilton]? Fantastic,” he said. “And his dad, Doc [Gavin Hamilton Sr.]. He’s been around the team forever. For the whole Hamilton family – it was just special.”

Winning the bid was only the beginning.

The real work came next.

“You need two years,” Mitchell said. “You’ve got leases to finalize, legal work, sub-committees, volunteers, meetings nonstop. The last three months before the event, you’re sweating bullets.”

He sees the same pressure now on the current organizing group as Kelowna prepares to host the tournament again this May.

“They’ve got a great committee,” he said. “They’ve got great ideas. It’s going to be a fantastic event.”

But even with another Memorial Cup coming back to Kelowna in May, Mitchell admits there is something that can never quite be repeated.

The first one.

Back in 2004, the city didn’t just host a tournament. It lived inside it.

“Everything was new and exciting,” he said. “They’d just been in the new building for a few years. They were selling out hundreds of games. The whole town was wired.”

Then came the ending no host city can plan for.

A championship on home ice.

“The Cinderella ending,” Mitchell called it. “Nothing beats winning the Memorial Cup on home ice. I still can’t believe it.”

Where does that moment sit in his life?

“Other than the personal stuff – kids and marriage and all that – it’s right up there,” he said. “It’s probably number one.”

And yet, even that ranking comes second to what followed.

“The experience of seeing the team win that final game… I don’t think I’ve had anything like that before or since,” he said. “I think I’m still hoarse from that day.”

One memory still makes him smile.

After the Rockets lifted the Cup, head coach Marc Habscheid gathered the group at the Grand [hotel] across the street.

“Everyone was drinking beer out of the Cup,” Mitchell laughed. “And then Marc said, ‘Let’s take the Cup over to the tent.’”

They walked across the road together.

“When we walked in, it was deafening,” Mitchell said. “Everyone was screaming. It was quite something.”

Now, as Kelowna prepares to do it all again, Mitchell watches from the sidelines, proud, grateful, and fully aware of how unlikely the first win really was.

“A small market. Bigger cities. Bigger buildings. Bigger money,” he said.

And still, somehow, Kelowna convinced the league.

They didn’t sell size.

They sold heart.

They sold a town.