Central Division, Insight, Memorial Cup

Memorial Cup 2020: Lethbridge

Written by Paul Figler on

This is part of a three part series on DUBNetwork highlighting each of the three options for hosting the Memorial Cup in 2020.

I am not going to make a case here for the Lethbridge Hurricanes as a team to win the vote this week on hosting the Memorial Cup in 2020. I am going to make a case for the City of Lethbridge to be hosts for the Memorial Cup.

Lethbridge is located in the Southeastern portion of Alberta. It is the fourth largest city in Alberta after Edmonton, Calgary and Red Deer. It does not have an international airport but it does have a regional airport with regular flights to and from Calgary. It would be capable of handling the charter flights we are accustomed to seeing the Memorial Cup teams fly in.

There are a multitude of hotels within the city, many of them within walking distance of the Enmax Centre.

The Lethbridge High Level Bridge is the longest bridge of its type in North America.

The May weather is beautiful in Lethbridge with daytime temperatures right around 18C (65F). I spoke with Dustin Forbes, play-by-play voice of the Hurricanes about some of the amenities Lethbridge has to offer.

“The city of Lethbridge has all the amenities that will be required to host an event such as the Memorial Cup. There are lots of things to do in the City, including the Japanese Gardens which is a big tourist attraction.” For those people who like to get out and do a little exercise, “There are also a lot of walking paths along the Oldman river.” An added benefit is  that Lethbridge is just an hour drive away from Waterton National Park.

We asked what type of events the City has hosted in the past. Forbes was able to provide some past and future events. “The City has been a great host of events. Lethbridge this coming March will not only play host to the University Cup for the CIS hockey championship, but it will also welcome the World Curling Championships. The city has also hosted the Scotties Tournament of Hearts in the past as well as countless other events in the city.”

Discussing things for people to do around the arena Forbes added, “There are a great deal of amenities near the arena. There are countless restaurants including Montana’s, Boston Pizza, Ricky’s. There is a big parking lot at the arena as well as a soccer centre, which I would imagine will all be included with the big and events that would co-inside with the tournament itself.” As mentioned before there are a pile of hotels in Lethbridge, some within walking distance of the Enmax Centre.

Lastly, we discussed the Enmax Cenre itself. Some of the improvements were unknown to me and Dustin did a great job of explaining them, “The rink underwent a major face-lift around 2010 that included the addition of 24 luxury box suites, a new dressing room for the Hurricanes, new dressing rooms for visiting teams. A new media box. Last year, the arena had all of the bucket seats replaced with new seats. The Hurricanes have also added a new ‘mega-screen’ that is in addition to the regular above ice video board which has lifted the fan experience factor within the building.”

Living the dream with an amazing team. DUBNetwork is just one of my passion projects, WHLStats is another. Follow me personally @paul_figler on Twitter or our account @dub_network.