News
The following are extracts from a letter circulated to all Partners of the CBC Hockey Night in Canada's Play On! program earlier today.
"Some of you are aware of ongoing challenges that we have had with regards to planning a Play On! event in Toronto. This particular event is very large and much more operationally complex than one might think when he/she first hears 'street hockey tournament!'
I'm pleased to share that outstanding progress has been made in planning for the event in Toronto at the preferred location around Queens Park Circle. We have secured written support for the event from the Deputy Mayor of Toronto and both affected City Councillors, and we received the necessary permissions from the city to implement the associated 1.5km of street closures (for two whole days) several months ago.
With that said, the execution of this event would still set a major special event street-closure precedent in the City of Toronto, related to the full blockage of an emergency lane inside the event. Such blockage would be required in order for us to set up rinks from curb to curb according to Play On! event requirements. While we have been able to work through this bylaw in every other city we have operated this program in across Canada, the City of Toronto is not yet sure that it can allow this precedent to be set in this particular locale at this time.
We have also carefully considered several other potential locations for this event in Toronto, and unfortunately none of these alternative locations are viable for this event at this time.
As a result, it is necessary to suspend planning for the event in 2010 and continue advancing discussions with the City with a focus on planning for this event in 2011."
The CBC Hockey Night in Canada's Play On! program is Canada's largest sports festival, and has made a positive and lasting impact in the lives of numerous Canadians in every province and territory. The program will involve well over 200,000 Canadians this year. Recent tour highlights include the Edmonton event attracting 490 teams and over 30,000 participants and spectators; the Premier of New Brunswick playing at the event in Moncton; sell-outs on both coasts (Halifax and Burnaby), and the Mayor of Calgary recently proclaiming June 19-20 as the Official "Play On! Weekend" in that city.
We are looking forward to completing the summer tour with events in Halifax, Saskatoon, and Calgary this weekend and events in Regina, Ottawa, and St. John's next weekend.
We encourage all teams that intended to compete in Toronto in August (in order to qualify for the upcoming National Championship event) to consider participating in Ottawa, St. John's, or Regina on the weekend of June 26-27.
Play On!
"Some of you are aware of ongoing challenges that we have had with regards to planning a Play On! event in Toronto. This particular event is very large and much more operationally complex than one might think when he/she first hears 'street hockey tournament!'
I'm pleased to share that outstanding progress has been made in planning for the event in Toronto at the preferred location around Queens Park Circle. We have secured written support for the event from the Deputy Mayor of Toronto and both affected City Councillors, and we received the necessary permissions from the city to implement the associated 1.5km of street closures (for two whole days) several months ago.
With that said, the execution of this event would still set a major special event street-closure precedent in the City of Toronto, related to the full blockage of an emergency lane inside the event. Such blockage would be required in order for us to set up rinks from curb to curb according to Play On! event requirements. While we have been able to work through this bylaw in every other city we have operated this program in across Canada, the City of Toronto is not yet sure that it can allow this precedent to be set in this particular locale at this time.
We have also carefully considered several other potential locations for this event in Toronto, and unfortunately none of these alternative locations are viable for this event at this time.
As a result, it is necessary to suspend planning for the event in 2010 and continue advancing discussions with the City with a focus on planning for this event in 2011."
The CBC Hockey Night in Canada's Play On! program is Canada's largest sports festival, and has made a positive and lasting impact in the lives of numerous Canadians in every province and territory. The program will involve well over 200,000 Canadians this year. Recent tour highlights include the Edmonton event attracting 490 teams and over 30,000 participants and spectators; the Premier of New Brunswick playing at the event in Moncton; sell-outs on both coasts (Halifax and Burnaby), and the Mayor of Calgary recently proclaiming June 19-20 as the Official "Play On! Weekend" in that city.
We are looking forward to completing the summer tour with events in Halifax, Saskatoon, and Calgary this weekend and events in Regina, Ottawa, and St. John's next weekend.
We encourage all teams that intended to compete in Toronto in August (in order to qualify for the upcoming National Championship event) to consider participating in Ottawa, St. John's, or Regina on the weekend of June 26-27.
Play On!
