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The $200,000 price tag — shared by the city and Memorial Cup host committee — includes rental of the structure, its construction and finishing
A pre-designed elevated platform, 150 feet long and 20 feet wide, is now under construction in Sandman Centre after some last-minute teamwork by Kamloops council and the Memorial Cup host committee.
The platform is being built on the east side of the downtown arena and will be used during the 2023 Memorial Cup tournament, which runs from May 26 to June 4.
The elevated platform will be home to private suite spaces for Canadian Hockey League officials, sponsors and broadcast and media partners. It will also create individual team executive spaces, as well as space for the TSN broadcast centre.
The $200,000 platform cost is being split evenly between the municipality and the host committee. The city is using gambling funds from the province to cover its share of the cost, while the committee has a contingency fund to tap into.
“We had hoped we wouldn’t have to use extra funds, but we strongly believe in the plan we’ve put forward,” host committee chair, Yves Lacasse told KTW.
Lacasse said the platform is something the committee felt was important to the event.
He said TSN did not make a request for a broadcast centre, but rather the committee came up with the idea to have a spot for the broadcasters overlooking the rink as they conduct between-period and pre- and post-game analysis, as seen with similar broadcasts like the World Junior Hockey Championships.
“It’s just making the event look really cool, very professional,” Lacasse said.
Work has already begun on the steel structure, with scaffolding having been erected on the east end concourse ahead of the Kamloops Blazers’ first two playoff games this past weekend.
The structure has a clearing for fans to walk under and still access their seats.
Lacasse said the city is making arrangements to build the platform on the committee’s behalf.
Byron McCorkell, the city’s community and protective services director, told KTW via email the project includes rental of the actual unit and installation, along with upgrades in the arena that include carpentry, electrical and furnishing. The space is expected to be able to hold 200 seats.
The $200,000 price tag includes rental of the structure, its construction and finishing. There is also a contingency of about 20 per cent of the project cost.
McCorkell said the platform is being installed under the city’s master services contract, noting the work has been sub-contracted to a company based in Salmon Arm. He said the reason the contract was not sourced in Kamloops was due to nobody locally having that type of system for crowd assembly and/or the amount of materials on site to get it done.
Lacasse said planning for the space and the suites has been ongoing since last September, noting it is not a last-minute project.
The city and committee had hoped to build the platform space within the budgeted $940,000 the city had set aside to spend on upgrades for the Memorial Cup, but those dollars ran dry.
Lacasse said the committee — a group of volunteers dealing with logistics, media, business operations and security in partnership with the host Kamloops Blazers and the CHL — collects funds via fundraising and tournament sponsorship. Lacasse said the $100,000 platform cost for the committee will put a “dent” in its contingency fund, but noted that is why the fund was created — for unforeseen costs that arise.
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