ASSINIBOIA — If you get fired up over hockey lingo like snipes and cellys, delighted by dirty dangles or celebrating your team’s goals in the five hole, there’s a good chance you’re a hockey fan from small-town Canada.
Hockey season offers the community social connections, especially in playoff season when everyone is rooting for the same team.
Whether your favourite Assiniboia team or player succeeded in their quests for league and provincial finals came to fruition or not, the benefits all around for players, fans, arena and community are the biggest success story.
- Extended period of gate income and 50/50 draws help the team's overall bottom line
- Vendors at the arena, like team sales and booth, enjoy extended season
- Success and excitement of this season translates into season tickets and attracts more fans for next season
- New material daily to talk about on coffee row
- Home town pride grows immensely during playoffs
- Arena gets to enjoy an extended season and showcase all that it has to offer
- Community economic spinoffs are extended as playoffs bring visitors to town who are likely taking in food, fuel and shopping opportunities as well as supporting the home team’s gate, 50/50 sales and booth in the home town arena
- Home town is talked about in print, social media, online and the news, generating interest in the home community, which offers another way to promote the TOA
- Employees who work at the rink enjoy longer seasonal job opportunities
- Players get to enjoy a rock star experience as community revels in their successes, cheers on their goals and wins, personally congratulated by excited fans on their contribution to the wins, and inspire younger players who look to emulate their hometown heroes by wearing their jersey or team’s jersey, and maybe even seek an autograph or two
- Whether win or loss, coaches can pat themselves on the back for successful leadership throughout playoff runs and revel in the community’s pride in their team’s efforts
- Excitement and energy in town throughout the playoff run as everyone embraces playoff enthusiasm, helping people put aside the news for a while.
Throughout the journey of hockey season, one thing is abundantly clear, and that is the local arena is the beating heart of small rural communities like Assiniboia.
The gathering hub doesn’t just assemble at game time, it is a season long gathering place that doesn’t just revolve around game time. People come to meet their friends and neighbors, embrace and experience community camaraderie and collectively establish and maintain a sense of collective identity and strengthened hometown pride.
This year’s hockey season that began back in September and culminates with playoff hockey runs, both those that are still ongoing and those that ultimately ended their team’s season. One thing is for certain, regardless of how the Assiniboia team’s season ended, the memories will last forever, by the players, their fans and the community as a whole.
