The Saint John Sea Dogs may get a chance to host the Memorial Cup championship for the first time next year.
The team announced Wednesday that it submitted an intent to bid for the hosting rights of the national championship.
Trevor Georgie, president and general manager of the Saint John Sea Dogs, said he feels the club is ready for the event.
“We’ve been building the team methodically for the last few years so that they’d reach the maturity,” Georgie said in a phone interview.
Georgie noted that most of the players will be entering their 19-year-old or 20-year-old season in the upcoming season.
Being able to host the first Memorial Cup since the pandemic began would also be a huge boon for the region, he said.
“The timing is right to have a 10-day event and welcome thousands of people here to our community and here to our region,” said Georgie.
According to Georgie, previous host communities have estimated that the tournament generated $10 million in economic impact.
While the Sea Dogs have yet to host the Memorial Cup, they have participated in the year-end tournament three times and hoisted the Cup once.
But Saint John will not be alone in its efforts to host the Canadian Hockey League’s national championship in 2022.
The Quebec Remparts, who are also part of the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League, also submitted its intent to bid on the tournament.
The Remparts have twice hosted the CHL’s national championship and has made seven Memorial Cup appearances, capturing league-wide supremacy twice.
“It’s a little bit David and Goliath because Quebec City has an NHL-sized rink and larger population and Patrick Roy at the helm of the team,” said Georgie.
“But make no mistake about it, us as Saint John, us as New Brunswick, we need to win this bid and we need to do everything we can to secure it because there’s no other sporting event attainable that will have the impact that the Memorial Cup will have for our region.”
Georgie said the club has been working on its bid conceptually for the past few years with a lot of effort going into it over the past 12 months.
“During the pandemic when the team wasn’t operating, we were able to keep our team busy working on this in the background during that time,” he said.
The teams will each submit their bids prior to the CHL deadline the week of Aug. 23, with the winning bid announced the week of Sept. 6.
It's official. We want the cup.
We have announced our intention to bid for the 2022 #MemorialCup presented by @KiaCanada
DETAILS 🏆 https://t.co/VyYWTvKNws pic.twitter.com/oWDEp3IVLh
— Saint John Sea Dogs (@SJSeaDogs) July 7, 2021