The Crescent Point Energy Western Canada Cup (WCC) that was held at Affinity Place from April 30-May 8 by the host CanElson Drilling Estevan Bruins has proven to be a tremendous financial success.
Ron Areshenkoff, a member of the non-profit WCC organizing committee, said there are still a few expenses left that are unknown, but the estimated cost to hold the tournament came in at roughly $600,000. He said their main expense was covering the travel costs of the participating Manitoba Junior Hockey League (MJHL), Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League (SJHL), Alberta Junior Hockey League (AJHL) and British Columbia Hockey League (BCHL) teams, putting them up in hotels for the week and paying for their meals.
Areshenkoff said this $600,000 also includes the three payments of $40,000 each that the WCC organizing committee pledged to give to the Estevan 2016 Saskatchewan Summer Games, the Estevan Bruins hockey club and the SJHL. He said that makes the true cost of hosting the tournament at around $480,000 to $500,000.
“We haven’t finalized (the details), but we’re confident that at least $120,000 (was raised above the costs) and that’s why we issued the three $40,000 cheques to each of the parties,” said Areshenkoff. “Now we’re going to do better than that, and any excess of that is going to go to the legacy project that we committed to at the beginning in our bid process.”
The WCC legacy project will be a massive electronic event advertising billboard that will be erected at the entrance to the Affinity Place parking lot. In addition to that, the WCC organizing committee will install a pedestal at the entrance of the facility outside of the library that will list the corporate sponsors that financed the tournament as well as a display board at the entrance to Affinity Place that will serve as a permanent legacy of the WCC tournament in Estevan.
Estevan Mayor Roy Ludwig said they’ve already got electrical service run to the site of the billboard and the city will make some hard decisions within a month or two with regard to checking out what specifications they’ll be looking for in terms of resolutions and size of the device before they place an order. He said the cost of the legacy project was initially forecast at $50,000 with the WCC organizing committee and the city splitting the expense, but that price tag is now expected to go higher.
Ludwig said they’ll be having more discussions with the WCC organizing committee on that higher cost of possibly upgrading the sign, but confirmed the initial understanding was the city would match the funds put in by the WCC organizing committee for this legacy project.
“We’ve been talking as far as the city goes for a long time now about doing that (billboard), but we just didn’t have the money in the budget,” said Ludwig. “So through discussions and through budget deliberations we can look at moving forward with this project. As far as timing, I don’t know if we’ll make it this fall, but again we’ll see with discussions with the WCC and the city. We’ll try to be as prompt as we can with that.”
Areshenkoff said the goal for the committee was to contribute $25,000 to the Summer Games, Bruins and SJHL, so being able to give each party $40,000 definitely exceeded their expectations. He said the SJHL contribution was a stipulation of the WCC bid process and the initial requirement was to give $5,000 to each SJHL team, excluding the Bruins, but due to the downturn in the economy had to lower that figure.
“What happened is as soon as the economy sort of fell off the four leagues were very good about it,” said Areshenkoff. “If we made some money we’re happy to share it, but we can’t provide the guarantee that we initially talked about and they were fine with that. So, we’re quite happy that we’re able to come close to that initial figure that we’re committed to.”
Bruins head coach and general manager Chris Lewgood said they were aware of the challenges going into the tournament, but were confident with their business plan and the quality people they were able to get for their organizing committee. He said Estevan has gained a reputation over the years of having very community minded people and that was evident in the corporate side, the attendance at the WCC and the general interest in the event.
"It became more clear leading up to the tournament (and) once the tickets started selling that we were approaching a break-even area," said Lewgood. "Then through the event we surpassed our costs and the pressure was off. So the event was a success in our eyes long before we knew for sure because we were exceeding expectations in certain areas of revenues."
Bill Chow, president of the SJHL, said the Estevan WCC was the first to show a profit since the initial tournament in Nanaimo, B.C., in 2013. He said every community is different and no one can really say why a tournament will work in one area and not another, but the accomplishments of the committee, volunteers, local and corporate sponsors and everyone who got behind the event should receive credit for making it a success.
Chow said the future of the WCC and whether it will continue to be the qualifying tournament for the four Western leagues to the Canadian junior A championship Royal Bank Cup will be looked at after the 2017 tournament in Penticton, B.C. He said whether Penticton has to show a profit to keep the tournament running has not been decided upon.
“If we were just looking at the dollars and cents I think after the first two events or after the first three events you might have said let’s throw the towel in, but I don’t think it’s all about profits and losses although nobody wants to lose money,” said Chow. “I think it just has to be looked at closely and of course it’ll be determined at that point and time.”
Areshenkoff said there was definite concern initially about hosting a WCC considering its record of losing money, but when they first looked at it and had a chance to review past budgets they came up with a vision to do things a bit differently and were confident they could break even. He said the price of oil dropping then made things a bit more difficult, but the core of the Estevan business community led by Ray Frehlick, Barry Bridges and Warren Waldegger along with the more than 50 corporate sponsors that wrote a cheque for $7,500 made the tournament a financial success.
“Initially you need those 30 or 40 people to write that cheque up front and we’re fortunate in this area that we have 40 businesses that will write a $7,500 cheque to finance the tournament,” said Areshenkoff. “If you didn’t have those I don’t know how else you can make it financially viable, so I think it really comes down to the whole thing hinges on that business community support.”
