It's been a long time since CN Centre was close to sold out for a Prince George Cougars game.
That just might happen this Saturday.
Tickets are selling faster than they can printed for Scotiabank Hockey Day in Canada's featured Western Hockey League game at CN Centre between the Prince George Cougars and Edmonton Oil Kings on Saturday afternoon.
Earlier this week, in one fell swoop, TransCanada Corp. bought 1,000 tickets for the game and presented them to the 2015 Canada Winter Games Committee for distribution to Games volunteers and their families.
TransCanada bought the tickets to activate its sponsorship of the 2015 Canada Games closing ceremonies and as a show of support for Games volunteers, a key cog in the operation of the two-week event, Feb. 13-March 1, 2015. More than 4,500 volunteers will be needed.
"They wanted to put bums in seats for the game for Hockey Day in Canada to show what kind of spirit Prince George has and we thought it would be a good idea to start with our volunteer team, which has been hard at work for us," said 2015 CWG volunteer workforce manager Christine Nicholls.
"We have over 2,000 volunteers already registered in the system and we're targeting 4,500, so if everybody that signed up recruited one more person we'd be just about full. We need everybody registered by October 31, 2014. That gives us to time to schedule, orient and train them."
The Cougars are also doing their part to pack the stands, offering ticket-buyers two tickets for the price of one. That offers also applies to Cougars season ticket holders, who can pick up one extra ticket at the Ticketmaster box office for each season ticket.
"We're more than half full and it's starting to get hard for people to get seats they want," said Cougars vice-president Brandi Brodsky. "I know there's going to be a huge lineup on Saturday afternoon so we're encouraging people to come and get their tickets early. The autograph signing with [former Vancouver Canucks goalie] Kirk McLean starts at 12:45 so we want people to come down early so they can be in to get a chance to get an autograph."
The Cougars-Oil Kings game starts at 1:30 p.m. Saturday. The Oil Kings will also face the Cougars Friday night starting at 7.
The Cougars game and other hockey activities at the adjacent Kin Centre on Saturday will be featured in live hits during CBC's national broadcast of three NHL games, which will be shown from coast to coast to coast. McLean will also be signing autographs in the atrium area of the Kin Centre starting at 11:30 a.m.. Before the Cougars game, the Scotiabank peewee female Cougars will be facepainting and the Cariboo Cougars major midget team will be helping the kids make signs to hold up during the game.
CBC cameras will be focused on some of the game action from the four atom house league Scotiabank-sponsored teams as well as the female rep peewee Cougars, scheduled for Kin 2 and Kin 3, starting at 8 a.m. Saturday morning.
"There could be an opportunity to see some kids on national TV," said Scotiabank's Prince George main branch manager Trevor Lutes.
The city had hoped to have the newly rebuilt Kin 1 and its Olympic-sized ice surface ready for Hockey Day in Canada but that won't happen. The necessary building occupancy permits for the $18 million project, the primary venue infrastructure improvement for Games, have yet to be approved. CN Centre and community arenas manager Andy Beesley figures the new rink won't be fully operational until late January.
"We're leaving all the windows open and people will be able to look through but the grand opening will be timed with a Canada Winter Games event that's coming up in the next few weeks here," said Beesley. "Even if it looks like it's ready, it's actually not. For Hockey Day in Canada, it's nowhere near ready to use for that scale of an event. There's a ton of last-minute painting and touch-ups needed. We still need the scoreclock and sound system, which are all being delivered [this week].
"We anticipate we should be good to go legally for the building permits next weekend we'll have the first users come and try out the ice. We want to start using it as soon as we can."
