With interest accelerating in the ascendant University of Victoria basketball teams, the Vikes would have been well past half capacity at CARSA gym for its recent home games.
Now they can be with the lifting of capacity restrictions for indoor sports in B.C., with the continued use of masks and vaccine cards.
“It’s late in the [Canada West] season but it’s positive news as we look to our stretch drive and then beyond that to the future,” said UVic athletic director Clint Hamilton.
“We are being rewarded in B.C. for doing what we were told to do as we shift to a more long-term strategy and a more normal future.”
The Victoria Royals game in Kamloops tonight at the Sandman Centre will be the last in the Western Hockey League B.C. Division to be played under half-capacity restrictions, which expire following the game at midnight.
GSL Group owns the Royals and operates Save-on-Foods Memorial Centre for the City of Victoria and also operates Prospera Place for Kelowna (but does not own the Rockets).
“This is massive news for both arenas [the Memorial Centre in Victoria and Prospera Place in Kelowna],” said George Fadel, senior director of marketing for GSL Group.
With the Royals in the midst of a dismal 16-game winless streak and community interest waning in the floundering team, the club has generally come nowhere near close to reaching even half capacity at the 7,006-seat Memorial Centre this season. The announcement looms much bigger for the powerhouse Blazers and Rockets, who can anticipate large crowds in the home stretch and then in the playoffs. The announcement also affects the Vancouver Giants and Prince George Cougars.
“We believe we can get the buzz going again and get hot and ready for the playoffs and get the rink full,” said Royals GM and head coach Dan Price.
The bigger impact for the Memorial Centre this year, however, looks to be on the concert front.
“We can book a lot more shows now,” said Fadel. “We’ve had a ton of show and concert bookers put on hold.”
Fadel said those dates can now be released for sales up to full capacity and that Island concert fans can expect an avalanche of announcements coming soon.
“Everyone benefits when more people are allowed into the Memorial Centre to watch the Royals and shows and concerts,” said Fadel. “People go out for dinner or to a bar before and after games and concerts. There is a tremendous trickle-down effect.”
The Victoria Shamrocks and Nanaimo Timbermen of the gate-driven Western Lacrosse Association also heaved a collective exhale Tuesday as they can now plan their budget with more certainty.
“This announcement comes as a really big relief for us after two years of not playing,” said Shamrocks general manager Chris Welch.
“Even though we knew we would be returning this year after the two dark seasons, there were still concerns about what this season would look like. This is a positive sign. We probably could have made it work at half capacity but it definitely would have been a different kind of atmosphere than we’re used to because we usually fill more than half of The Q Centre, and for big games and playoffs, we get close to capacity and it becomes a rocking place to be.”
School sports, however, fall under the Ministry of Education and not the Public Health Office or Ministry of Health. Spectators were previously not allowed into school gyms for games or tournaments, not even to half capacity. That will now be bumped up to half-capacity allowed for indoor school sports beginning Friday.
“We understand families want to watch their children compete in tournaments and we recognize the importance of these events as part of the school experience,” said the Ministry of Education, in a statement, to the Times Colonist.
There is an urgency in that the school basketball playoff tournaments begin this week all over the Island and province.
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