Nothing left to do but wait: Medicine Hat’s Memorial Cup bid committee awaits CHL results after final meeting

By JAMES TUBB on November 7, 2024.

jtubb@medicinehatnews.com@ReporterTubb

Medicine Hat’s bid to host the 2026 Memorial Cup is officially out of the local committee’s hands.

The committee, led by chair Brent Sauer, sat down virtually with the Canadian Hockey league on Oct. 30 for a 90-minute meeting, the final in the process before the winner is to be announced in late November, early December.

Sauer says the CHL was scheduled to talk with all five cities/teams in the running, Medicine Hat, Lethbridge, Spokane, Brandon and Kelowna, and says they were encouraged when they closed their computers after the meeting.

“We were actually very, very proud of how it went, we thought it we went very well from our end,” Sauer said. “At the beginning of the meeting, they complimented our bid and how well we presented ourselves in the bid, so that was a positive. Who knows, maybe they’re saying that to all of them, but it was, it was good to hear anyways.”

They sat in the front foyer of Co-op Place for the meeting, with the Tigers’ championship banners hanging in the background and the CHL logo represented on the jumbotron.

Sauer says the first 30 minutes of the meeting was a last chance to sell Medicine Hat and the Tigers as hosts for the 2026 tournament. The next 55 minutes were answering questions from the CHL. Sauer says the CHL sent them the questions 24 hours in advance of the meeting and they weren’t asked all of them for a good reason, “some of the questions they didn’t even ask us, because we answered those questions in our presentation.”

The CHL focused on three things, the status of fundraising and finances and the confidence of reaching those targets. They also asked about travel from Calgary to Medicine Hat with the recent changes WestJet has made with Medicine Hat flights. Sauer says the city and the airline have already spoke and WestJet has indicated they would provide extra flights coming into Medicine Hat during the Memorial Cup, if awarded.

The last focus was on where the team will be in the 2025-26 season. For that, head coach and general manager Willie Desjardins was brought in, Sauer says, to speak about who they have signed, the picks they have and how they would put together a Memorial Cup worthy team.

When asked how he pitched Medicine Hat and the team, Desjardins spoke about what the team has meant to the city and vice versa.

“We’re part of Medicine Hat and Medicine Hat is part of the Tigers, they go together,” Desjardins said. “I’m proud to be from Medicine Hat, the fans have been outstanding, I just think it would be a great event for the city.

“It would be outstanding for us to be able to play in front of our home fans, we’ve won a couple Memorial Cups, but we’ve never had a chance to win in front of our fans. After 50 years, it’s probably time we got a chance to win in front of our fans.”

With the last formal meeting done, all that’s left is an anxious month for Sauer and his group. He says they’re going to take some time to fill some directorship roles within what would be the host committee so they are ready to go if they receive fateful news.

Both he and Desjardins tipped their cap to the work put in on the bid.

“People will have no idea how much time has gone into this, people have committed so much time and energy to submit, to put all the information together, submit the bid, to follow up and prepare for these meetings,” Sauer said. “I can’t say enough about them, everybody was fantastic and everybody played a role.”

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