"I wanted this to come to our community so bad."
Those were words that Kelowna Mayor Tom Dyas echoed on Wednesday night, Nov. 27 as the Kelowna Rockets, the city, and others celebrated the 2026 Memorial Cup coming to town.
After it was announced during the day that Kelowna was hosting the event, both the Rockets and Dyas addressed the media and a group of around 50 people in attendance at the Kelowna Yacht Club on Wednesday night.
"This is a thrilling night for our organization and for the city," said Rockets president and general manager Bruce Hamilton. "I can't be more proud of the group that we put together to make this bid come true and I'm thankful for the opportunity for us to have this event one more time here."
In total, five teams put a bid in to host the event, the most since 2009 - the Rockets, the Medicine Hat Tigers, the Brandon Wheat Kings, the Spokane Chiefs, and the Lethbridge Hurricanes.
Hamilton said he thought it was a fight between Kelowna and Spokane but they had a little bit of an idea on Tuesday that their bid was going to win. When they got told, they discovered they won the bid unanimously in a sealed vote. It was voted by a CHL committee consisting of Graeme Roustan (Chairman and Owner of the Hockey News), Colin Campbell (NHL Sr. Executive Vice-President of Hockey Operation), Aaron Fox (Chair of Defence Team for McDougall Gauley), Kalli Quinn (Event Specialist at KAQ Event Consulting), and Paul Graham (Executive Producer & VP at TSN).
"When I got the call from the CHL, I told them the same thing when we finished our bid, that we will not let the CHL down by making this the best Memorial Cup ever and most importantly, making our WHL partners proud," said Hamilton.
The Rockets were set to host the Memorial Cup in 2020 but it was cancelled due to the pandemic. A few years later, Kelowna aimed to host the 2023 Memorial Cup and submitted its intent to bid but Prospera Place was deemed unfit to CHL standards and needed to be upgraded. Kamloops hosted the event that year. Since then, Prospera Place has gone through some renovations including a brand-new scoreboard, improved lighting and sound systems, a dedicated press box, and more.
Hamilton added that he believes two things - that the events of 2020 had nothing to do with the city winning the bid to host the 2026 event (they never mentioned it in their bid) as well as him being the Chairman of the WHL Board of Governors. This is because the team the Rockets put together to make the bid was an independent group, which included lawyer at Rush Ihas Hardwick, Dave Rush and former MLA Steve Thomson.
"When we were in 2020 and didn't get it because of COVID, you know there was a spot left that needed to be filled and I think that now we've got the opportunity to bring an event back here that the city," said Hamilton.
Rush said he convinced Thomson to become a part of the bidding process and team and is thankful for the opportunity.
"We worked hard and it's been a lot of fun and it's been a great privilege," said Rush.
It was Hamilton and the rest of the group who called Dyas to let him know they had won the bid.
"I was just elated to know that it's coming to our community," said Dyas, who added he has a sense of relief as well. "I was there in the building in 2004 when we won the cup and the memories that are there at that point in time, to be able to kind of bring that back to our community, it'll just create memories for our residents for years to come."
In the experience of Hamilton and Dyas, it's their second time winning the bid and Dyas said: "I can share with you, that winning the event the second time feels just as sweet as it did the first time."
After he was notified about the winning bid, Dyas reached out to WHL Commissioner Dan Near, as well as the mayors of the other cities that placed a bid to thank them for their efforts as he understands the effects it can have on a city, including the economic impact. As of the time of Wednesday's celebration, he hadn't heard from any of the other mayors yet.
When asked about economic impact, Dyas said he went through studies from the last 10 years of the teams and cities that hosted the Memorial Cup and found there was a $15-$17 million impact on those communities. He believes the event happening in Kelowna can have upwards of a $20-$25 million impact.
"It's bringing in business in the shoulder seasons, it's not when the majority of tourists are here," said Dyas. "We've developed a little bit of a strategy to try to look at establishing major events."
Over the next year and a half, Kelowna is hosting three major events in the Brier, the Canadian Country Music Awards, and now the Memorial Cup. Dyas added he and the City are working on another major event to come to town but he couldn't disclose any information on it yet.
According to Rush, the bid video was created in just over two weeks. Additionally, the bidding team set a goal to have 90 per cent of the bid done by the end of August. The team had its bid done and submitted three days before the deadline.
So what's next? Being the host team, the Rockets want to put the best roster on the ice that they can. Just a few hours after the announcement was made official, Hamilton was already working the phones.
"That work started this afternoon," said Hamilton, who added himself and the front office had two paths set out for the team's direction, one for if they win the bid and one for if they didn't. "We feel we'll be in good shape but we'll be certainly adding some more things to it."
Hamilton added this is one of the reasons why the team started the season with four 16-year-olds on the roster, so they can grow and develop for the biggest event in major junior Canadian hockey.
A question mark for the Rockets next season is Tij Iginla and if he'll be on the roster. The Lake Country native has 26 points in 18 games this season and was drafted sixth overall by the Utah Hockey Club in the 2024 NHL Draft. Hamilton said he hasn't really talked with Utah yet but believes they'll see the Memorial Cup as a good opportunity for him, especially since Iginla will be 19 years old next season, meaning he can't play in the AHL, he can only play in the NHL for Utah or Kelowna.
"[It's] very seldom 19-year-olds playing in the NHL, and I think that they'll see that this is a great opportunity for him to learn how to be in an event like this," added Hamilton.
The work for the Rockets and the group starts right away, as they have a meeting set for the next steps at 10 a.m. on Thursday morning.
