Allan Cup - One Month Away

allancup2013.ca

Yesterday at the Alberta Sports Hall of Fame and Museum, the 2013 ATB Financial Allan Cup organizing committee gave an update to the local media.

With the tournament now just one month away, excitement for the Senior AAA national championship tournament is starting to pick up. 

Ticket sales are a clear indicator of that excitement as the tournament is already more than 80% sold out.  Tournament Chair Dave Mousseau expects that number to reach 100% by the time the tournament starts on April 15th.

"With our choice of venue being the [Red Deer] Arena, I think the atmosphere there is second to none, especially for championship calibre," Mousseau proclaimed.  "But unfortunately there's only a certain amount of seats in that venue.  With the following that senior hockey has now, it is going to be a sellout."

Here are some quick facts as we get closer to the start of the tournament...

- To date... over 1350 tournament passes ($200 for all 11 games) have been sold... approximately 300 remain... tickets order forms are available online

- With a complete sellout is expected, there will likely be no game day walk up tickets available

- Fans without tickets will be able to enjoy the games from next door at the Red Deer Curling Centre, which is being transformed into a western themed "P's and Q's Corral" for the Allan Cup... the lounge will feature live broadcasts of each game and live nightly entertainment

- 3 of the 6 spots in the tournament have been claimed as of Wednesday... Bentley (host), Stony Plain (Alberta rep), and Clarenville (Atlantic)

- 3 spots in the tournament remain up for grabs - BC (Fort St. John or Powell River)... WEST (Rosetown SK or South East MB)... ONTARIO (Kenora, Dundas or Brantford)... schedules for each of these series are available at allancup.ca

- 7 of the teams still in the hunt for the 2013 Allan Cup title have won it previously, including the last five champions - Stony Plain '99... Powell River '06... Brantford '08... Bentley '09... Fort St. John '10... Clarenville '11... South East '12

- 6 of the remaining teams have hosted the tournament previously... Powell River '02... Stony Plain '07... Brantford '08... Fort St. John '10... Kenora '11... Dundas will host the tournament in 2014

- TSN will broadcast the tournament final on Saturday, April 20th at 5:30pm local time

On a personal note... I'm very excited to work with the Allan Cup committee and imediatv.ca as the play-by-play for the Allan Cup online broadcasts.  I've called games from previous AC tournaments and can't wait to do it again!

I spoke with Bentley Generals Head Coach Brandin Cote on Wednesday.  Our chat will air during our Rebels / Oil Kings broadcast on Friday night.  The Generals will be on the ice at that time for game one of the Senior AAA Provincial Final versus Stony Plain.

TG