Final numbers

Eighty bucks.
The 2012 RBC Cup in Humboldt made $80 - $135,000 less than what the host committee had projected they would.
"Although the event wasn't what we hoped for financially due to several reasons, it was still a fantastic event," stated Lorrie Bunko, executive director of the Humboldt District Hospital Foundation, which acted as the event coordinator for the RBC Cup.
This $80 in profit is after funds were shared with all of the teams attending the event, pointed out Kevin Dow, co-chair of the RBC Cup host committee.
Each of the five teams received $5,000 for participating in the event, including the Humboldt Broncos.
They gave the teams everything they'd been promised, Dow said.
Those payments are, in effect, the profit from the event, he noted.
Have other communities who have hosted the Canadian Junior A Hockey League's championship tournament seen a bigger profit?
"It varies," said Dow. "Not every event has completed the profit sharing with the teams. We generated enough sales to do that."
The RBC Cup is "a very expensive event to host," he summarized.
The net revenue made by the event was $594,821, $140,000 less than what had been projected in their budget. This was due to a combination of factors, including an unrealistic budget for event ticket sales (it was $257,000, while the net revenue was $216,621), receiving only half of an expected $100,000 grant from the provincial government - something the committee is continuing to follow up on - lower profit than expected at the PotashCorp Event Centre during the tournament (it made $33,418 instead of the $53,000 in the budget), and poorly attended lead-up events in the community.
Expenses were a little lower than they'd counted on, coming in at $594,741 from just over $600,000. This was despite a $22,000 overrun on transportation - the RBC Cup host committee was responsible for all the transportation costs, meals and accommodations for the visiting teams, officials and Hockey Canada representatives. The total for transportation alone was $154,344, as opposed to the $132,000 that had been budgeted.
There was also a $15,000 cost overrun on volunteer clothing that the committee attributed to an increased number of volunteers. The cost of volunteer clothing amounted to $42,410.
So instead of making $135,000 from the event, as the committe had projected, they made just $80.
The event did pay for a number of facility upgrades at the Elgar Petersen Arena, Dow said, like new skate-friendly flooring by the dressing rooms downstairs, a new washer and dryer for the Humboldt Broncos, and it also covered some upgrades to the information technology system at the Uniplex. A new 50-50 system for the Broncos was paid for in part by the RBC Cup host committee as well.
Through what they paid in facility rental, Dow added, there were other upgrades like painting, signage, and some upgrades to dressing rooms which will be a legacy of the event.
The small profit means that the 2012 RBC Cup's legacy plan is moot. Fifty per cent of any profit was to go to facility leasehold improvements for the Humboldt Broncos team, including revamping their showers, dressing room, office space and trainer/rehabilitation facilities. Ten per cent was to go into a Humboldt Broncos trust fund for an annual scholarship, another 10 per cent was to go to the Saskatchewan Hockey Association for a Saskatchewan Development Model Scholarship fund; and yet another 10 per cent was to go to the Humboldt Minor Hockey Association for the purchase of equipment and to offset costs for coaches, officials and trainers to attend development clinics. The final 20 per cent was to be directed to a fund to support the development of a second arena ice surface in Humboldt.
Financials aside, a lot of good things happened because of the RBC Cup, hosted from May 5-13, 2012, Dow believes.
"A lot of money was made by businesses and trade created from the event, so there still was a lot of good for the community," Dow said.
"I also think the city and the committee learned a lot from hosting such a large event."
One of the main challenges they faced in hosting the Cup was the number of hotel rooms available, Dow noted.
While there was a new hotel to add rooms to the mix in Humboldt, so many rooms were required to house the teams, Hockey Canada representatives, officials and others who travel with the teams, there weren't a lot of rooms left for out-of-town fans.
"As a result, many stayed in Saskatoon and other centres," Dow said.
And that meant the PotashCorp Event Centre, which featured live entertainment and liquor sales through the week, didn't attract as many of those fans as they might have if they were staying in town.
"We didn't capture as much of their traffic at the event centre after games," Dow said. "That impacted on the revenue generated at the event centre."
The most people in the event centre at one time was 600; some nights with entertainment, there were between just 150 and 200 people there.
The playoff weekend was a little flat, Dow said.
Having the Broncos win the semifinal or final "would have created a more celebratory atmosphere," he said.
They still got a good profit out of the event centre, Dow noted - they had just hoped to be closer to $60,000 than $30,000.
On the expense side, transportation was the big ticket item, followed closely by accommodations ($105,409) and the cost of feeding all those hockey players and officials (around $100,000 between per diems and other food costs, and the officials' meals, travel and fees).
The transportation costs include all the flights for the teams and the Hockey Canada representatives, Dow noted.
"It's very difficult to manage that. Hockey Canada organized all the travel arrangements... it was more than was budgeted, for sure. It was a bit of a surprise with some of the Hockey Canada people attending and the costs. And some officials cost significantly more than what had been budgeted.. and more than previous events," Dow stated.
The overrun on the volunteer clothing was mainly due to an increased number of volunteers. The goal was 300, but they ended up with 374.
"We added a lot of people to ensure the event centre was well staffed," said Dow. "We had more volunteers than what we had originally planned.
Still, he said, it was a very well-attended event.
"Humboldt definitely put its best foot forward," said Dow.
Hockey Canada and committees from around the country who will host similar events in the future gave the Humboldt RBC Cup great reviews, Dow said.
"They were all extremely complimentary of the organization and how well-run the event was," Dow said.
That recognition has to go back to each volunteer on the host committee, and to their event coordinators, Lorrie Bunko and Allison Eichorst, "for keeping things on track," Dow said.
"In the end, we had a full house (in the rink)," he noted. "Ticket sales were really quite strong."
He attributed the shortfall in the ticket revenue to selling so many early ticket packages at a better price. That meant there were fewer tickets available for the higher, walk-up price.
In hindsight, he said, they should have charged more for those early packages.
But the good news was that the stands were packed for most of the games, even those the Broncos didn't play in.
"The teams were very happy with the support they got from the community in that regard," Dow noted.
What does he hope the event left people with?
"It was a very successful event," Dow said.
There was great support and participation from the community, and overwhelming volunteer support, he noted.
"It was really great bringing the community and the region together. It was tremendous," he said.
The RBC Cup brought a lot of awareness of this region to the country, he added.
"It put a real light on Humboldt for that period of time," he said. "It was extremely well-run. And some benefits will linger on into the future."