The Estevan Bruins junior A hockey team is hosting a massive street hockey tournament early next month in an attempt to raise a bit of money for the club as well as provide a fun day out for the community’s adult population.
Clark Munroe, Bruins director of operations and marketing, said their plan is to ask businesses around town to enter a co-ed team of about eight players plus a goalie into the, hopefully, 24-team tournament on August 8. He said this street hockey tourney will act as the first of two summer fund-raisers for the club with the ultimate goal of building up a total of around $18,000 to go towards the team’s operating expenses.
“It never hurts to have a little bit more money and (we’re) going into a big year (and) we have some big plans as far as doing some special things at the rink and just trying to give a good show to the crowd,” said Munroe. “With everything going on, our budget could use a couple extra fund-raisers and (we) figured having a couple during the summer would really help because you only have a certain amount of time during the season.”
Munroe said the four-on-four street hockey championship will be based around adult participation as there will be beverage games going on at the sidelines. He said the Bruins will set up a number of rinks in front of Affinity Place for the “social/competitive” Saturday tourney with the plan of having teams battle it out in the approximately 20-minute games throughout the day, in between enjoying off-rink activities, before a championship final is held that evening.
“We would have some food provided and some drinks provided throughout the day for everybody,” he said, noting teams can register by contacting the Bruins office. “We’re looking at getting a sponsor on board for a location for people to go to as well between games, so it should be a really fun full day for everyone involved.”
The street hockey tournament will be the first event of this kind that the Bruins will attempt to organize as a fund-raiser, but several other junior teams have been successful using this model. Munroe said they’re hoping to make the tourney an annual event for everyone to look forward to each summer.
In addition to the tournament, the Bruins are also working on hosting a Steve Earle concert after-party Aug. 14 at the Power Dodge Curling Rink that will act as their second big fund-raiser of the summer. The team will release more information on that event in the coming weeks, but until that time the Bruins’ plan is to focus on raising their season ticket holder numbers before July turns to August.
“We reached 275 tickets the other day, which is about 40 per cent of our overall goal of 700,” said Munroe, noting season ticket prices will rise in August. “So, we’re getting pretty close. We’re just encouraging the rest of the City of Estevan to come out and get their tickets before July 31, so you can take advantage of early bird pricing.”
