When I heard this news, I was a bit disappointed. I was looking forward to watching a few games at the iconic venue on Renfrew Street that saw the Canucks play in two Stanley Cup Finals and the Vancouver Giants win one Memorial Cup in 2007.
The Memorial Cup is the U20 version of the Stanley Cup that is competed for annually in May. A four team tournament that lasts over nine days. The winner of the CHL, OHL and QMJHL winner is represented along with a predetermined host team. Therefore, one team goes into the year knowing they are going to be part of the the Memorial Cup no matter what happens that year.Unfortunately, maybe this move was going to happen eventually. With the Vancouver Giants attendance hovering just above 5,000 this year, it sure makes a lot of sense for the Giants to play their games in the smaller venue where there will be a lot more empty seats. In addition, the smaller venue might make for a louder more intimidating environment which could lead to a better fan experience and even more fans.
What will be interesting to see is if the Vancouver Giants get renamed the Langley Giants or even the Fraser Valley Giants. Renaming them the Fraser Valley Giants would attract fans around the Fraser Valley to come to the games and people in that region would feel that they have a new team to follow.
Langley Giants has a good ring to it and would be an awesome small town feel for a city with a population of only 25,000.
Unfortunately, the NLL's Vancouver Stealth play out of the LEC and they associate themselves by Vancouver and I would imagine the giants would do the same. Ironically, I can't imagine many people coming from Vancouver to watch a game. This would a great time for the Expo Line to extend out to Langley on the SkyTrain. *Hint Hint to Translink.*
Also, it will be very interesting to see if the Giants come up with a new logo. I have always thought of that logo as the Vancouver Giants and therefore changing the logo would be a great start for a new era of hockey at the LEC.
This might be the end of rumors for WHL hockey as at the AESC in Abbotsford as well. I believe there is a certain distance two franchises have to have the right amount of Kilometers between teams. If this rule is still in place, then that is bad news for the world's most unused arena in Abbotsford.
Over the last few years, I have really gotten into the CHL. After spending three years in Kamloops, I would call myself a Blazers fan. Sadly, the CHL just isn't on TV on a daily bases to get fully into the league.
No comments:
Post a Comment