AAA Hockey Challenge evolves, continues to make huge impact

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This article was published 14/04/2023 (1042 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The AAA Hockey Challenge returned to Brandon on Thursday, with 41 teams in action this weekend in an event that’s now more than three decades old.

The tournament is being held at all three rinks in the Keystone Centre along with J&G Homes Arena, and drew players from Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Ontario, Alberta, North Dakota and Minnesota. Over four weekends, nearly 100 teams will skate in the event, creating an enormous economic ripple through the city.

Tournament owner and organizer Darryl Wolski said a friend of his who works as a chartered professional accountant suggests that for every hard dollar spent by visitors, there is a $7 spinoff.

“Some accountants might argue that number but if you just add up the hotel rooms alone, there are millions of dollars we poured into the community this weekend,” Wolski said. “You’re not going to find a hotel room, you’ll probably have to wait for an hour and half to get a pizza or to go into a restaurant.

“I don’t think people really understand the number of dollars and cents that come in and we’ve done this now for over 30 years.”

Four separate divisions are running this weekend, with teams sorted by the birth year of the players. The divisions are for 2012-born players (with 10 teams), 2013 (15 teams), 2014 (eight teams) and 2015 (eight teams), with the finals set for Sunday between 10 a.m., and 4 o’clock in the afternoon, with three at J&G Homes Arena and one at Flynn Arena.

About 80 per cent of the teams have competed in the tournament in the past.

Wolski was fortunate the Brandon Wheat Kings didn’t make the Western Hockey League playoffs, because an ammonia leak at the Sportsplex in early March has that rink out of commission indefinitely. Wolski had games scheduled there, but was able to move them over to Westoba Place because there was no competition for the ice.

The games essentially run from 8 o’clock in the morning until 10 at night at the four rinks. Including referees, about 50 paid staff will be on site this weekend. 

This is the most normal year since the pandemic began in 2020. The AAA Hockey Challenge was cancelled that year and more modest events were held in 2021 and 2022. 

“Last year was somewhat a return to normal but this year we have a lot of American teams,” Wolski said. “This is the first year they’ve come across the border. Not to get all political, but a lot of North Dakota and Minnesota people didn’t get vaccinated, so even if they could come here, a lot weren’t vaccinated.”

If all five rinks were available, Wolski still has a pair of significant factors limiting the tournament’s growth. The first is the number of hotel rooms, with the city essentially sold out this weekend.

The second is the number of referees, which has become a problem across the sports world.

“The referee pool is like polar bears,” Wolski said. “They’re dying off. There is no young Mike Godfrey coming up or no young Ernest Elder coming up. It doesn’t seem like there’s any development, and it’s not bad money. They can ref here and make $50 in an hour and 45 minutes. But nobody is interested.”

He estimates that with five rinks available to him, plus more hotel rooms and refs, he could probably add an extra eight or nine teams each weekend.

The tournament resumes from April 27 to 30 with 2008-09, 2010 and 2011 divisions. In a new wrinkle, more competitive tournaments are set for May 18-21 for the 2011-born and 2013 divisions, and May 25 to 28 for the 2012 and 2014 divisions. Only five teams are accepted for each age group.

When Dave Lewis was working for the Western Canada Hockey Academy, he approached Wolski about adding more events for higher-end teams. The tournament this weekend is referred to in the spring hockey world as silver, which is essentially AA, and the final two events are gold, which would be AAA, without some of the baggage those labels carry.

“Dave said ‘Let’s fill up a couple of weekends in May,’” Wolski said. “We looked at where all the other tournaments are and said ‘We can do this weekend and this weekend, and plunk in some teams.

“I was going to have a fifth weekend, a female weekend, but there wasn’t enough interest. I cancelled the weekend and then people started calling me … With guys hockey, I was sold out in December.”

Wolski said the gold tournaments are essentially the same as the silver, with a couple of high-end touches thrown in.

That’s the world Wolski finds himself in now. Spring and summer hockey has exploded and the battle for teams is intense.

“The marketplace is swamped,” Wolski said. “There is a lot of competition.”

Saskatoon, Regina, Winnipeg, Fargo, Grand Forks and Minneapolis are all nearby cities that host events, and that doesn’t include the abundance that take place in Alberta and the Lower Mainland in B.C. He said Brandon’s biggest selling feature is that it’s central, because it simply doesn’t have the abundance of attractions that a city like Minneapolis has.

“The only reason you come here is for the tournament,” Wolski said. “We don’t have Apple Valley like Minneapolis or the Mall of America. They have all the bells and whistles we don’t have, so we have to create the bells and whistles, and that’s the technology.”

Wolski was an early adapter on that front, making the move from paper to electronic scoresheets years ago, with text alerts and a tournament app. 

Last year he did a broadcast live on YouTube with graphics and play-by-play, and this year he’s added a number of new wrinkles, including a massive LED video wall with scores, standings and statistics, something he said is unique in youth hockey.

“I saw a 15-year-old kid looking at the standings out there and he saw his name coming down, and the kid was just mesmerized,” Wolski said. “His mom and dad were like ‘Wow!’ That’s what I’m looking for. I’m looking for that wow factor.”

He compared it to buying a steak at one restaurant versus another. The meat might have come from the same place and been prepared identically, but it simply tastes better in one of them because of the environment that restaurant has created.

“We try to put as much sizzle as we can on the steak,” Wolski added. 

He said the technology also did away with what he calls “the endless stop and chats” in which he is asked about the schedule, results or standings, because that information is readily available on everyone’s phone.

All the games this year are streamed online, and the finals will include player introductions with CO2 cannons and live broadcasts with play-by-play.

“We’ve really taken this to a new level this year,” Wolski said. “This is by far the best tournament we’ve run.”

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