City Notebook: ‘Tour de Bedard’ proves fans will show up to Co-op Place

By COLLIN GALLANT on April 8, 2023.

cgallant@medicinehatnews.com@CollinGallant

Attendance is up in the Western Hockey League this season, which some attribute to the Connor Bedard effect.

Figures are still being tabulated in Medicine Hat (see below), but the gate was also helped by a much better team than the 2022 edition.

Also, anything in 2023 is better than 2022 when viewed through the lens of the pandemic, especially when it comes to getting out for the night.

So, the once fiery debate about the location, size, finishes, parking and so on and so forth of the now eight-year-old building has been reignited to a degree.

Think about it.

In Medicine Hat, two sellouts against Bedard’s Regina Pats – attendance easily doubled at the 6,400 seat Co-op Place – to theoretically add two extra regular season home games. Two playoff games helps, too.

The “Tour de Bedard” also brought in just shy of 15,000 a few weeks back at the SaskTel Centre in Saskatoon. That mini-version of the Northlands Coliseum once was promoted as worthy of an NHL expansion franchise (and an offer by Bill Hunter to relocate the St. Louis Blues).

But it took a long time to fill up to the brim for hockey.

Former Tigers beat writer Darren Steinke reports in his ongoing WHL and Sports blog that the all-time biggest audience at the centre was during a 2018 concert by rock band Metallica, and second place was a lacrosse game.

The Blades also played in a hometown Memorial Cup final in 1989, don’t forget (I’m sure Swift Current fans haven’t).

Here’s a thought…

Medicine Hat is the only municipally-run power producer in Alberta, but such entities are common across the country.

That’s why the federal budget includes a new grant package to cover 15 per cent of the costs of Crown corporations when they build green power production.

Last year, St. Albert shelved plans to create a power company and build solar facility citing a lack of government grants to offset costs and regulatory intricacies. Might that position change?

VIP

Cypress County welcomed officials of the French government last week as that country’s Vancouver-based Consular General visited the province. French construction conglomerate Vinci is currently building the Springbank Reservoir near Calgary, and French utility giant, EDF (Electricite de France), is about to fully commission the Cypress Wind Energy Centre. For the record, neither is a French government project, and both private firms have Canadian subsidiaries

Notes from afar

Scott Mitchell, who hosted weekends on local radio station CJCY before leaving the city in 2014, has been promoted by Stingray’s terrestrial radio network. He now oversees programming at 11 rural stations in the Alberta, according to MediaInAlberta.ca.

Earl Swarbrick, of Frontier, Sask., will receive the Saskatchewan Volunteer Medal at a ceremony on April 28. The former mayor of the village near Eastend, insurance dealer and health board member has been the treasurer of the local seniors club since 1991. He still does mowing in the village, according to a provided biography.

A look ahead

A look back on attendance at city facilities – i.e. the Esplanade and Co-op Place – is on the Monday agenda of a city committee.

Next Friday sees the official combination of Canadian Pacific Railway and Kansas City Southern after a $31-billion takeover (are we really going to have to start saying “CPKC” rail?).

100 years ago

What the Alberta cabinet lacks in experience, they make up for in sanity, was the retort of United Farmers of Alberta government as they sought major cuts in their second budget, the News reported in April 1923.

An expert panel of “finance men” was to be appointed after the session to examine the province’s finances, Premier Greenfield announced.

Players on the Ottawa Senators each received a $700 bonus for appearing and winning the three-team Stanley Cup championship tournament.

New York’s Easter Parade was devoid of spring-like garb in favour of a variety of furs and ankle skirts with side panels and Egyptian motif, the women’s page correspondent noted. At the fashion event of the season, “coloured shoes seamed the mode.”

In Chicago, bombs damaged the office of “the Dawn,” an official publication of the Klu Klux Klan and the separate office of its business manager.

Railway police in Winnipeg concluded that a ticket theft ring centred in that city comprised 27 conductors and two porters

A photo special detailed the plight and flight of Isabel Coursier, 16, of Revelstoke B.C., believed to be the only female ski jumper on earth.

Collin Gallant covers city politics and a variety of topics for the News. Reach him at 403-528-5664 or via email at cgallant@medicinehatnews.com