Outstanding players accept awards as part of the Telus Cup in Moose Jaw

Saying they were promised a bill for $90,000 but charged almost twice that amount, Moose Jaw and Mosaic Place have essentially been blacklisted by Hockey Canada.

A letter received by our newsroom, dated May 7th to the Mosaic Place Board of Directors, claims the Telus Cup committee that hosted the National Midget Hockey Championships this spring saw cost overruns for facility rentals of nearly $110,000 when compared to the three previous tournaments.

The letter from Hockey Canada Manager of Events, Jeff Beck, claims the local committee was promised facility rentals would be $90,000 but instead, they received a bill for $160,000 or nearly half of their revenues.  As a result, they expect to only break even with revenues of $360,000 and so there won't any money to donate to the local hockey community.

Rumours of cost overruns floated down the concourse of Mosaic Place during the event with extra volunteers being brought in for certain positions and some food services being cut at the last minute. The committee also approached the City of Moose Jaw at one point, asking for financial assistance to host the tournament including facility rental fees.

According to the letter, any future bids for Moose Jaw to host a Hockey Canada or Saskatchewan Hockey Association event at Mosaic Place will not be considered and Moose Jaw will not receive recommendations to host other events such as figure skating, curling or speed skating.

The letter is an interesting turn of events following the tournament.  In the moments that followed the presentation of the Telus Cup, Hockey Canada brass praised the facility and the event saying they were highly impressed.

“The quality of hockey was one thing that was front and centre, but none of this can be done without the local host committee and the volunteers that put so much effort into it,” said Beck in an interview with DiscoverMooseJaw.com reporter Marc Smith.

“All the comments back from teams is that (the volunteers) went above and beyond, whether it was meals, transportation or accommodations, everything was looked after and they were really well prepared. This obviously being a new building is top notch. It really made for a fantastic event.”