The Memorial Cup could be coming back to the Okanagan.
Today, Kelowna Rockets owner, Bruce Hamilton, announced that the organization would be bidding to host the 2020 Memorial Cup tournament.
Tom Dyas, former president of the Kelowna Chamber of Commerce, will head up the bid.
“We feel that it has been a long time (16 years) since we have had the privilege to host the Memorial Cup. From our perspective it’s a great opportunity for our organization and for our city,” said Rockets owner Bruce Hamilton.
“From a hockey standpoint we feel very confident that we will have an extremely competitive team, and we will be in it to win the tournament. We feel that our fans deserve the opportunity to host this event again.
The Rockets are no stranger to the Memorial Cup, or hosting, as the team has been in the prestigious tournament five times since 2003.
That includes the only other time the city has hosted, in 2004, where future NHLers Josh Gorges, Shea Weber, Tyler Spurgeon and Blake Comeau led the team to its only Memorial Cup victory.
The other four times, the team has won the WHL championship to reach the Memorial Cup, but came up short in their efforts to win another one.
Most recently, the 2015 Rockets reached the Memorial Cup in Quebec, losing a heartbreaking championship game to the Oshawa Generals in overtime.
The Rockets bid committee will now spend the next five months preparing their bid before presenting itat the Annual Governors meeting scheduled for October 3, 2018 in Calgary.
After all bidding teams have presented, which includes another pair of NowMedia markets in Kamloops and Victoria, the Governors will vote and the winning team will be announced at the conclusion of the meeting.
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