Memorial Cup – Day 1

Today was the first day for me covering the Memorial Cup in Saint John..well kinda. I arrived last night and made it just in time for the fireworks but I dunno if you can count fireworks as a day! So today will be my official start to covering the Memorial Cup.

The activities for today were scheduled earlier in the day due to it being Sunday. But we’ll start off at the first. I went exploring around to check out the different grounds. There are four parts to the Memorial Cup. The obvious ice hockey rink (TD Station), the street hockey rink, Area 506 container yard and lastly the 2nd stage on Canterbury street.

I started off by checking out the street hockey rink where there is a tournament setup. The age classifications I think are under 9, under 11, under 13 and under 15.

There was plenty of action here, setup next to the skate park.

From here, I popped over to the Area 506 Container Yard. They are using containers to act as small shops which is great considering the cruise ships dock right next door to here. This area also hosts the concerts, or one of the concert sites. You’ll see more of this in time but I did capture an image of a cat getting a tour.

From here, I was starting to get a wee bit hungry. I am sure the food at the container site was good, I really wanted to go checkout the Rib Fest going on. It was 1.2km away so I hoped in my car and went.

I got some grub and ate it while walking around checking things out. While on my walk, I ended up talking with one of the organizers who said things were a bit slower this year. The musical acts they were hosting at night weren’t bringing in any crowds compared to what was happening at the Area 506 container yard. From here, I went back to the street hockey rink. The first event was to take place at 2pm, according to my schedule. However I soon discovered things weren’t actually commencing until 3pm.

The arrival of the Memorial Cup was to commence at 315pm as a Coast Guard helicopter was set to take off and drop the trophy off to a Coast Guard vessel. Need not worry, I later found out there are two actual Memorial Cups. A real one and a backup replica. They were going to drop the replica into the Coast Guard vessel incase there were any issues.

Soon enough, the replica Memorial Cup was floating through the air being carried around by helicopter. Fans had come to experience this event. As things go started, so did the rain. However the fans stuck around to witness it.

Onto page 2 as the helicopter does a second loop around.