Castlegar Kraft Hockeyville bid nets 589 uploads
By Kyra Hoggan
Castlegar’s 17-day push to become Kraft Hockeyville 2014 is over, netting 461 nominations and 589 uploads to the Kraft website – and now the waiting begins.
City councillor Dan Rye said the first round of winners will be announced on March 8 during Hockey Night in Canada, and will include eight winners from Western Canada and eight from Eastern Canada.
“Winners get $25,000 in upgrades for their arena,” he said, adding that, should Castlegar be one of the chosen, we’ll then have 48 hours to garner as many votes as we can to move up to the top four (which comes with a $50,000 prize). The next level is top two (one from East, one from West), each of which will receive $100,000 in upgrades, and the ultimate top-spot winner will also get to host an NHL exhibition game.
Rye said there’s a meeting slated for Feb. 23 to discuss plans should Castlegar get the nod, including (tentatively) establishing voting stations at the college, the Complex and City Hall.
“We’ll be needing people to man the polls,” he said (the media will post more information on how to vote/volunteer when details are finalized). Voting will be online, and local businesses may consider having laptops available for patrons to cast their ballots during the 48-hour crunch.
Councillor Sue Heaton-Sherstobitoff said that, now matter how the rest plays out, Castlegar has come out a winner.
“I have every expectation that Castlegar will be announced on March 8 – we’re in it to win it, as they say,” she said. “But even if we’re not one of the eight, it’s still a win. We had a lot of really good events that created a lot of media and hype, and that I think will become annual events. It brought the community together.”
That being said, she added that Kraft will be looking for stories that tug at the heart strings and show community spirit, and Castlegar’s many nominations certainly fit that bill, so there’s every reason to hope for a win come March 8.
For more information on Kraft Hockeyville, visit http://krafthockeyville.cbc.ca/
