Chilliwack – Momentum has been building in the community over the past month as numerous businesses, organizations and individuals extend their support for Chilliwack’s bid to host the Royal Bank Cup National Junior A Hockey Championship in 2018. The love for Chilliwack’s team, the Chilliwack Chiefs, was very tangible this weekend as fans took to social media to share a clear message with Hockey Canada. They’re ready to host the RBC Cup.
Mayor Sharon Gaetz kicked off the weekend ‘crowd tweet’ during a live interview on Star 98.3 Friday morning with a tweet saying, “Hey @HockeyCanada! We’re ready to host the #RBCCup. Please vote for #Chilliwack! #CHWK2018”
Following the mayor’s lead, over 1440 tweets were sent to Hockey Canada with a similar call-to-action. Through the power of social media, the message spread quickly reaching an impressive 235,655 Twitter accounts with 1,005,218 Twitter impressions by late Sunday night.
“It was so refreshing to read all of the positive comments on Twitter about our city and its passion for hockey over the weekend,” said Tourism Chilliwack sports development coordinator Scott Beare. “This initiative is only the start of many opportunities to share Chilliwack with the rest of the country during our bid to host the RBC Cup,” Beare enthused.
Locally recognizable Twitter accounts strongly promoted the initiative including @Chiefs_Hockey, @DesmondDevnich, and @GreatOutside, and some high profile names lent their support including BC Lions linebacker Adam Bighill, television personalities Dan Murphy and Mauro Ranallo, and BC recording artists Dallas Smith and Aaron Pritchett, but it was the community-at-large that brought the event success.
“It was really exciting to see Chiefs fans getting out their phones and tweeting during 60-second pauses in the final home games this season,” said Chilliwack Chiefs marketing director Barry Douglas. “We knew Chilliwack was supportive of hosting the RBC Cup, and now hopefully Hockey Canada got a taste of our community’s passion for this event,” Douglas said with a smile.
The Chilliwack 2018 RBC Cup Bid Committee has until late March to submit the final bid package to Hockey Canada for its consideration. Until then, the committee is soliciting expressions of support from local businesses and organizations and gathering information to present Chilliwack as the best host city for the 2018 RBC Cup.
Contact:
Barry Douglas Scott Beare barry.douglas@chilliwackchiefs.net sbeare@tourismchilliwack.com
604.392.4433 604.858.8121
Desmond Devnich desmond.devnich@gmail.com
604.701.1399
