What A New Events Centre Could Mean For Thunder Bay
by Scott A. Sumner
Each November I make the 3-hour drive to Duluth to spend 5 days over their Thanksgiving period. My first priority is to cover the annual Amsoil Duluth National Snocross presented by Traxxs. This major snowmobile race attracts some 40,000 spectators and 100’s of racers from all over the world.
This year started out similar to the past with big concerns about snow availability for the race track. In fact my car told me it was 15 degrees Celsius on my way down on Thursday. The Spirit Mountain Ski area has over 20 snow guns, so they had been making snow, but is always a struggle it seems. This year the snow hit Thursday night and I woke up to a snowy scene in Duluth where the previous day there had been none.
It is fun to stay at the Holiday Inn and Suites right downtown and connected by skywalks to Canal Park. This property is currently undergoing a $4 million renovation to all rooms and common areas. It will be the place to stay in Duluth. The development of Duluth always amazes me especially at their waterfront and with the large freeway like road system they have. This year the timing was right to attend a UMD Bulldogs Men’s Hockey game when they played against St Cloud, MN.
There has been lots of talk about our own events centre in Thunder Bay and attending a game at the new $80 million Amsoil Arena will certainly give you a glimpse of what could happen here in Thunder Bay. This arena is really a mini NHL facility with 6700 seats and many corporate boxes and a fantastic media set up. They have a large general media area, Home TV, Home Radio, Away Radio and Away TV rooms. It was fun to watch an exciting game next to the away colour commentator for radio. My hockey experience was complete with pizzas and soft drinks to keep the media happy. This game was sold out with 6700 tickets at about $30 each. That’s pretty good revenue for a university hockey team. I have always said they do it big in America.
The Amsoil Snocross races were excellent as usual and I did many interviews and videos on the event which you can see in our sister publication NW Ontario Snowmobile News and web site www.slednews.com
You can follow me on twitter Scott Sumner @tbay25
