New Westminster will be showcasing its love for hockey on the national stage on Valentine’s Day.
The 2015 Rogers Hometown Hockey Tour will make a stop in New West on Feb. 13 and 14, 2016. Along with two days of activities at Queen’s Park, popular hockey broadcaster Ron MacLean will be vising New West and delivering unique hockey stories inside the Sportsnet Mobile Studio.
“We are really excited to be able to host one of the 24 locations,” Mayor Jonathan Cote told the Record. “New Westminster has a strong hockey community, and a lot of history with our past Bruins, WHL team.”
Starting in Kitchener, Ont. and finishing in Winnipeg, Man., Rogers Hometown Hockey Tour aims to highlight the best of each town on the tour and explore its hockey roots. NHL alumni, hometown heroes and local entertainment will appear at each stop on the tour.
Cote said details are still in the works, but he anticipates there will be some “pretty interesting visitors” in New West - particularly for hockey fans.
“Essentially what it is is a two-day festival in Queen’s Park, with a live broadcast on Sunday, Feb. 14 of the game with Ron MacLean and the crew there,” Cote said. “I think the community will respond well. I know we have a lot of hockey fans in New Westminster. I think it’s a good opportunity to engage the local hockey organization and all the hockey fans in New Westminster in having a really exciting couple of days and connecting with the live broadcast from the festival.”
MacLean, an award-winning broadcaster, was an anchor on Hockey Night in Canada for many years and is host of Coach’s Corner.
“Each weekend is a uniquely Canadian experience that brings us all together,” MacLean said in a press release. “Our mantra has been simple – take you someplace and tell a story. We’ve discovered at each stop a story that belongs to us as no other story could. It’s of Canadians, with hockey at its core.”
Destinations on the Rogers Hometown Hockey Tour will deliver a weekend of free outdoor activities in each community that celebrates all things hockey. Fan favourites such as Sportsnet Be a Broadcaster, Scotiabank Community Locker Room and Dodge Stow ’n Go Challenge will return from last year’s tour, and a new GamePlus experience.
“It should be quite exciting,” Cote said. “They started it last year and went to a number of cities. We had a chance to look at what they did with other cities. Every city was a little bit different, but for the most part it was a family-friendly event with lots of different booths and interesting things – certainly with hockey being the main theme behind the festival. I think it’s something where we really want to invite the whole community in and really have a good time over the weekend. New Westminster, with its strong hockey history, we are going to be located right next to Queen’s Park Arena. I know during the broadcast they really want to showcase the hockey history in your town. I think it will be a perfect location to do just that.”
Cote thinks it’s a good thing for New Westminster to be featured on the coast-to-coast broadcast as part of the Rogers Hometown Hockey Tour.
“Canadians watch hockey in high numbers,” he said. “I think it really is an opportune time to showcase some positive things about New Westminster. Right in Queen’s Park, which is one of the jewels of our city, is a great place to do that.”
