Scotiabank Hockey Day in Canada will be held from Ship Point in Inner Harbor on January 20, 2024.

Hockey Night in Canada host Ron MacLean will make the announcement next Monday at 4:30pm during the Stanley Cup final broadcast on Sportsnet.

The Victoria Hockey Legacy Society, the local organizing committee, confirmed that Victoria has been selected as host and a formal announcement will be made next Tuesday at Ship Point. Joel Darling, executive producer of Scotiabank Hockey Day in Canada, will be in attendance.

The 14-hour national show, broadcast annually on Sportsnet, will see all seven of Canada’s NHL teams in action, with the event at Ship Point which will include children’s play on the synthetic ice surface and a concert on the adjacent stage.

Broadcast will include a segment on Island hockey history and a live feed of that day’s Victoria Royals Western Hockey League game at the Save-on-Foods Memorial Center.

A Stanley Cup will be hosted for the event, 99 years after the Victoria Cougars won it.

According to the Victoria Hockey Legacy Society, led by entrepreneur John Wilson, the broadcast attracted an estimated 10 million viewers over its 14 hours.

It was first broadcast in 2000, from Toronto. Hockey Day in Canada this year takes place in Owen Sound, Ont., and in 2022, in Scarborough, Ont. As of January 2020 it’s on Yellowknife.

The budget for hosting the event is $850,000, says the Victorian community. The Province and Destination Greater Victoria contributed $100,000 each. The City of Victoria is giving away $100,000 in cash and other services such as bleachers and a stage for a total of another $100,000. The rest will come from corporate sponsors.

“Sport is important in building community and it will give the city tremendous exposure,” said Victoria Mayor Marianne Alto. “Rarely do you get this kind of opportunity and visibility to showcase Victoria in the dead of winter.”

Keith Wells, executive director of the Greater Victoria Sports Tourism Commission, said the event would serve as a platform “to tell the stories of our greatest hockey players, from Patricks and the 1925 Stanley Cup to the 1960s professional Maple Leafs and our next players. like Courtnalls and Grant Fuhr.”

cdheensaw@timescolonist.com

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