By Alex McCuaig

Economic impact

Economic impact of U-17 tournament expected to be in the millions

Oct 31, 2019 | 5:28 PM

Medicine Hat, AB – The World Under-17 Hockey Challenge is expected to be an economic boon for city restaurants and hotels over the next 10 days with four teams based in Medicine Hat along with Hockey Canada officials, fans and national broadcast crew setting up shop.

It’s a facet of the tournament which isn’t lost on Hockey Canada whose senior manager for events says the economic impact will be measured in the millions of dollars.

“People don’t always realize that beyond the players, it’s their families and friends. It’s people who follow this level of hockey” said Jeff Beck. “In any given year, you can see an economic impact of up to $5 to $6 million in a city.”

Hotels are currently booked up or nearly so, more than 20,000 people are expected to attend a dozen games at the Canalta Centre and fans are expected from far and wide.

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For local restaurateur Todd Lindsay, his business located near the Canalta Centre is geared up to handle the anticipated crowds at the barbecue shack.

“We’re ready,” said Lindsay. “We’ve done some renovations, we’ve changed the menu a little bit, we’re doing a feature menu for the entirety of the tournament. We’re pumped and ready to go for this.”

And hosting an international event can also attract return visits to the city. Something the tournament’s marketing director says they’ll be tracking by polling fans intent to return to the city.

“That’s a big one too,” said Kara Brake. “We always talk about the economic impacts being financial but there is a lot of social impact to this as well.”

The tournament kicks off Thursday evening with exhibition games in Medicine Hat, Brooks, Shaunavon and Swift Current.