Cavendish Cup Proves To Be A Great Event For Thunder Bay
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Cavendish Cup Proves To Be

Cavendish Cup Proves To Be A Great Event For Thunder Bay

by Scott A. Sumner

Thunder Bay Business

 

 It was just 8 years ago that a group of experienced hockey people got the Lakehead University Thunderwolves program underway in Thunder Bay. They are  unique in CIS Sports as the Lakehead Thunderwolves Hockey is a non profit organization  forming a partnership with Lakehead University. Now some 8 years later the team is hosting the Cavendish Cup a national mens university championship  with the best 6 teams in the country participating right here in Thunder Bay.

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     “We have a board outside of the university which does include some members of the university and business members. Everything  is on a volunteer basis.” said Rory Cava President of the Lakehead University Thunderwolves.   Cava, age 49, has had a long hockey career playing  for the Thunder Bay Twins, Thunder Cats and ThunderHawks locally as
well as  playing Jr hockey in Ottawa for three years. He was in pro hockey for 6 years at Dallas, North Carolina, Indianapolis, Fort Wayne, Indiana and Adirondack in the American League  before  moving back to Thunder Bay. “ I used to hang around the dressing room at age 3 when my dad was coaching teams like the Mars Vulcans said the now 49 year old Cava. “ The secret to our team has been  reaching out to the community. The volunteers we have this weekend floors me with  some 150 volunteers taking time off work. We wanted to showcase the hockey team to the country and show what the Thunderwolves are about. There was a bid process to get the National CIS tournament. They thought we could draw a lot of fans. We were unsuccessful the first time with Moncton beating us out but we went back, tweaked a few things and were successful.”

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    Hosting the Cavendish Cup is quite a business event to put on. “ We have to guarantee financially and are responsible for Sportsnet TV broadcasts. For the first time  ever there will be three games televised. It is expensive but well worth it to showcase our community. We made it a festival. We have gone to our sponsors  for 8 years and we try to recognize them. Thunder Bay is isolated and travel can cost quite a bit. The teams travel to this event with a pool of funds from the CIS as it is a national championship. We do have to make a guarantee to the CIS,” said Cava. “ It has gone very well. We are excited the time is now.  The volunteers are getting the floor of the curling club ready. It is phenomenal the amount of people helping out. Ticket sales are going well.  We have a substantial financial guarantee so we had to make sure all the games are well attended. There was a huge risk factor to only sell Thunderwolves games. The pass averages out to $15 per game which is very affordable. We didn’t want to go to
selling Thunderwolves tickets at $40 to $50 to recover our guarantee as that is what we would have had to do. Putting all your eggs in a championship game is risky as well as the Thunderwolves may not be there. So we couldn’t take the financial risk. Tournament passes are sold in almost every tournament event. We fully understand why people are struggling with the passes.  If we started to sell individual tickets it would not be fair to our pass holders so we are caught in a bit of a tough spot. The main thing we want is Thunderwolves hockey to here for the long time. We will do the event again next year and I can see Lakehead University hosting the championships many times in the years ahead.”
    Murray Walberg is the Chair of the Organizing Committee for 2009 Cavendish Cup  and also Regional VP for NW Ontario for RBC Royal Bank. “ RBC is a sponsor of the tournament but I am more of a hockey fan and feel the  LU Thunderwolves are an important part of the spirit of the community so when asked to come on as chair as a volunteer I was happy to do so. We have a great organizing committee with over a 100 volunteers which are mobilized making sure this is a great event,” said Murray Walberg. “It costs about $ 600,000 to put on an event like this
and the Thunderwolves are a non profit so we are on a cost recovery basis. We want to recognize the best fans in University hockey in the country and bring it here for the fans.   We are about 80% sold of our target and the box office is brisk. It will be an exciting event. We
have the Hockey Hall of Fame, the Wolfden with big screen TV’s and lots of events including a tailgate party with Kelsey’s and  Montana’s.”
    Tom Warden, Athletic Director  of Lakehead University was also excited about the event. “  We are the largest drawing university hockey in Canada with about  2900 to 3100 people a night, which is exceptional. On a regular basis we have a 2000 season ticket base and high general attendance.  In Thunder Bay this is our hockey program, “ said Warden.  “ Our challenge in 2001 we knew  right away,  was we don't normally have a lot of playoff games so we have now  a game plan to show the fans with these national championships. It is already
booked for 2010.”
    The Cavendish Cup will prove to be a large economic impact for Thunder Bay. Media accreditation  alone included 85 media from all over Canada, according to Bonnie Moore, in charge of Media Accreditation.



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