Sports
Richmond abuzz for Hockey World Cup
By Don Fennell
Published 2:27 PDT, Tue June 20, 2017
Richmond is still abuzz after learning Monday
(June 19) that it has been awarded the 2020 Canadian Adult Recreational Hockey
Association’s Hockey World Cup.
The week-long tournament, scheduled for March
and April of 2020, is expected to have a significant impact on the local
economy. An estimated $10 to $15 million was injected into the Windsor, Ont.
economy when that community held the tournament in 2016.
“It’s a very good thing for the city, something
all parties involved worked very hard to obtain and that will be a great
benefit to the city,” Mayor Malcolm Brodie told The Richmond Sentinel.
Brodie added many players and their families
are likely to extend their stays before and after the hockey games.
“All around, it’s very exciting,” he said.
Gary Collinge, general manager of the Hilton
Vancouver Airport Hotel and a member of the Tourism Richmond board, is equally
enthused by the news.
“It’s a fantastic opportunity for Richmond,”
he said. “I think we could be looking at upwards of 8,000 room nights, then
there’s the other spin-offs such as the restaurants and taxis.”
Lucy Peeling, co-ordinator of the CARHA
Hockey World Cup, said the city will provide a “unique experience to our
participants from a facility and tourism perspective.”
CARHA said Richmond continuously went above
and beyond throughout the bid process.
“Their bid was thorough and covered
everything that makes the CARHA Hockey World Cup so special with amazing venues
and plenty of sights to see. We were blown away by the amount of effort put
into their site visit, with people ready to greet us at every stop wearing
their CARHA Hockey gear.”
Known as the Olympics of recreation hockey,
the tournament is held every four years and attracts more than 120 teams from
15-plus countries. The players are from 19 to 70-plus. It also features a women’s
division.
Registration for the event will open this
fall. For more information, visit http://www.thecup2020.ca/.