Joey Payeur
The Arctic temperatures are not cooling a late push to have Fort Frances deemed Canada’s hockey centre.
The town’s home site on the “Kraft Hockeyville” 2014 website (krafthockeyville.cbc.ca) had a total of 35 members and 40 video uploads as of yesterday morning.
By local bid organizer Jonathan Glueheisen’s analysis of the other communities in the West bracket of the contest, which Fort Frances is part of, the town currently sits in sixth place.
If that holds, Fort Frances could be in good shape to make the top eight communities selected from the West bracket to advance to the next stage of the contest, as well as qualify for a guaranteed $25,000 in local arena upgrades.
“I’m crossing my fingers and praying that the next [10] days go by without too many changes to the [West standings],” said a hopeful Glueheisen.
“It’s officially the final two weeks of the [first round of the] contest,” he added.
“Let’s go, Fort!”
Salmon Arm, B.C. currently leads the West bracket with 300 members and 213 uploads while Sylvan Lake, AB is next with 208 members and 205 uploads.
After those two, it’s Castlegar, B.C. (121/127), Kitimat, B.C., (38/58), and Osyooos, B.C. (17 members but a bracket-high 342 uploads) that currently are ahead of Fort Frances.
Prince Rupert, B.C. is seventh (6/11) while Dryden rounds out the top eight (6/9).
The deadline for nominations is Feb. 9.
An in-house panel then will choose the top 16 communities—eight from the West and eight from the East, with those communities being announced during CBC’s “Hockey Night in Canada” on March 8.
A total of $1 million will be shared by those communities, depending on how much further each of them gets in the contest.
The overall winner will receive $100,000 in arena upgrades, have the chance to host an NHL pre-season game, and have a CBC-TV crew come to their community to capture the moment.
Those interested in supporting the Fort Frances bid can visit krafthockeyville.cbc.ca, then click on the “Find Your Community” link.
Once there, enter “Memorial Sports Centre” in the “Community name” box, then click on the “join” link that appears on the right-hand side of the page.
