Assiniboia’s Southland Co-op Centre vying to be 2023’s Kraft Hockeyville champion

By Jay D Haughton

The Town of Assiniboia and its Southland Co-op Centre have put their hat in the ring to become this year’s Kraft Hockeyville champion.

If they win, a cheque for $250,000 will be presented to them, and the town will host an NHL pre-season game.

Steph VanDeSype, Assiniboia’s recreation and community wellness manager, says the big push to submit their application was to be able to host that NHL pre-season game.

“We know we are fully capable in our new rink; we have beautiful dressing rooms and lots of seating, and we would love to put Saskatchewan and Assiniboia on the map,” says VanDeSype.

Since the contest’s inception in 2006, Saskatchewan has yet to win Kraft Hockeyville, so VanDeSype and Assiniboia want to change that.

Along with hosting a professional hockey game, the town would also get that $250,000 grand prize, which it has earmarked to go toward some additional arena upgrades at the Southland Co-op Centre.

“We want to put a digital banner all the way around the inside of the rink, which would add to the excitement of the game,” VanDeSype said. “As well, we also want to create a room in that rink where we would rent out equipment to those who aren’t able to afford hockey equipment. We don’t want financial difficulties to be a barrier for anybody when it comes to the sport.”

The town has already begun to help newcomers or those facing financial difficulties play hockey for a very reasonable cost. In its U7 program, Assiniboia Minor Hockey is only charging $50 for a registration fee. VanDeSype said this has caused numbers to increase over the past two years.

VanDeSype says with the opening of the new rink in September and now their Kraft Hockeyville submission, there’s a real buzz around the town.

“We know some of our change rooms are nicer than some of the ones in the NHL,” VanDeSype said. “We would love to showcase our facility but we would love to showcase Assiniboia, Moose Jaw, and Saskatchewan as a whole. If we did this NHL game a lot of people would be staying at hotels in Moose Jaw as well.”

VanDeSype’s job is to try to continue marketing not only the new arena but the Town of Assiniboia, which was one of the reasons why they decided to submit an application.

“What event would be bigger than an NHL game in our arena?” VanDeSype said. “Our big drive was to get things into our community that we’ve never seen before, some big events that we haven’t been capable of hosting before.”

Though winning the whole thing would be the ultimate goal, the town would be happy to be one of four finalists, which would allow it to have a video montage done of the rink and the town to bring awareness to the community.

Currently, Kraft Hockeyville is in the early stages of the competition. The nomination and rally period opened Jan. 1 and is to run until Feb. 19.

The goal is to get as many points as possible to become a finalist through a nomination story, sharing the town’s story on Twitter and getting photos of the arena, notes and emoji reactions on social media.

“We need people to submit their pictures and interact with the pictures with a like or love,” VanDeSype said. “That’s what we need from our community right now.”

VanDeSype concluded by saying that currently there aren’t any fundraising events planned in support of Kraft Hockeyville, but if the town is chosen as one of the finalists, then things will begin ramping up.

The nomination and rally portion of the competition is only the first of the five-phase event.

The next phase is the judging period from Feb. 20 to March 11. The announcement of the top four will take place on March 11. The top four voting will open on March 31 at 9 a.m. ET and end on April 1 at 5 p.m. ET, followed by the winner announcement later that day.

To interact and submit photos for the Town of Assiniboia’s Southland Co-op Centre as this year’s Kraft Hockeyville champion, visit this page.