[London Knights hockey team] governor Trevor Whiffen… said fear of cold weather prompted organizers to cancel the May 19 opening parade through downtown. It has been replaced with a paid ticket opening ceremony….
Let me get this straight. The parade—a free, public event—for a hockey tournament—which, for those unaware, is a winter sport, played on ice, both outdoors in cold weather and indoors in refrigerated buildings—that was to occur in mid-May—when the outdoor temperature averages 13 degrees Celsius and a low of 7 degrees—in other words, temperatures suited to a light jacket—is being cancelled in favour of a paid-ticket event because it might be too cold‽ Is it possible, just maybe, that the organizers saw a way to squeeze more money out of the people for whom they’re purportedly putting on this event and are trying to spin things to their benefit?
No, of course not: we’re assured that there are enough activities that will involve the community.
And, of course, the event is injecting an estimated $10 million into the city’s economy.
Or not.
In its bid, the Knights outlined plans to create a virtual beer garden involving 15 downtown bars. The beer garden will [now] take place in the parking lot of the John Labatt Centre….
We want to keep the crowds centralized in the immediate John Labatt Centre area,he said.We thought it would be better on balance to create the festival area in the immediate vicinity of the JLC and not lose that opportunity.
Wouldn’t it be a shame to lose that opportunity to isolate people so they won’t wander off, as far as 5 blocks away, and forget about the hockey that they’ve come from across Canada to see? To lose that opportunity for the event organizers to keep as much profit for themselves as they can at the expense of a downtown that’s already suffering financially? To lose that opportunity to show that the CHL and its teams are in any way different from the NHL in their approach to the supporters of the product it produces?
Yup, that would be a real shame. Why, it would be almost as bad as lying to the community—which overwhelmingly supported the competition for the tournament in the first place—about the purely avaricious reasons for which the events in that community are being cancelled.
Apparently I’m not the only one who had these thoughts.
