Red Deer is a city in Alberta, Canada, located midway on the Calgary–Edmonton Corridor. Red Deer serves central Alberta, and its key industries include health care, retail trade, construction, oil and gas, hospitality, manufacturing and education. It is surrounded by Red Deer County and borders on Lacombe County. The city is in aspen parkland, a region of rolling hills, alongside the Red Deer River.
The Stampede Corral was a multi-purpose venue in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. Located on the grounds of Stampede Park, the arena was completed in 1950 at a cost of C$1.25 million to replace Victoria Arena as the home of the Calgary Stampeders minor professional hockey club, which hosted their Western Hockey League games for years. The Corral was built and owned by the not-for-profit Calgary Exhibition & Stampede organization, which leased the underlying land at $1/year from the city of Calgary. Seating 6,475, plus standing room, it was used during the annual Calgary Stampede, with a variety of entertainment events in each year's daily ENMAX Corral Show.
The Red Deer Rebels are a Canadian major junior ice hockey team based in Red Deer, Alberta. The Rebels are members of the Western Hockey League and play home games at the Peavey Mart Centrium. The Rebels won the President's Cup and the Memorial Cup during the 2000–01 season.
The Sandman Centre is a 5,464-seat multi-purpose arena in Kamloops, British Columbia, Canada. It is home to the Kamloops Blazers ice hockey team. The arena is owned by the City of Kamloops. The current naming rights holder is Sandman Hotels.
The IIHF World Junior Championship (WJC), sometimes referred to as World Juniors, is an annual event organized by the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) for national under-20 ice hockey teams from around the world. It is traditionally held in late December, ending in early January. The tournament usually attracts the top hockey players in this age category.
The Cloverdale Fairgrounds are located in the town of Cloverdale in Surrey, British Columbia. Since 1938, it has been the host site of one of Canada's largests rodeos, the Cloverdale Rodeo.
The Canadian Finals Rodeo (CFR) is the national championship professional rodeo in Canada, currently held in Edmonton, Alberta; the host site from its 1974 inception through 2017, after being held in Red Deer, Alberta, from 2018 through 2023. The CFR takes place in the fall and is the final event of the Canadian Professional Rodeo Association (CPRA) season. It offers one of the richest purses in Canadian rodeo, usually worth over C$1,000,000.
The Hlinka Gretzky Cup is an annual international under-18 ice hockey tournament administered by Hockey Canada, the Czech Ice Hockey Association, and the Slovak Ice Hockey Federation.
Peavey Mart is a Red Deer, Alberta-based chain of hardware and agricultural supply stores owned by Peavey Industries LP. The chain was originally founded by the Peavey Company in 1967 as National Farmway Stores, and was renamed Peavey Mart in 1974. The chain was acquired by its Canadian management in 1984.
The Meridian Centre is a 5,300 seat arena in downtown St. Catharines, Ontario, Canada, located at 1 David S. Howes Way. The arena is the home of the Niagara IceDogs of the Ontario Hockey League and the Niagara River Lions of the Canadian Elite Basketball League.
The 2016 Memorial Cup was a four-team, round-robin format tournament that took place at the ENMAX Centrium in Red Deer, from May 20–29, 2016. It was the 98th Memorial Cup championship and determined the champion of the Canadian Hockey League (CHL). The tournament was hosted by the Red Deer Rebels, who won the right to host the tournament over a bid by the Vancouver Giants. Other teams participating were the WHL champion Brandon Wheat Kings, the OHL champion London Knights, and the QMJHL champion Rouyn-Noranda Huskies. The tournament ended with the London Knights winning their second Memorial Cup, defeating the Rouyn-Noranda Huskies 3–2 in overtime in the championship final. The Knights won 17 consecutive games to take the title, dating back to the second round of the OHL playoffs.
The 2015–16 WHL season was the 50th season of the Western Hockey League (WHL). The regular season began on September 24, 2015, and ended with the Eastern Conference tiebreaker game on March 22, 2016. The Victoria Royals won their first Scotty Munro Memorial Trophy for best regular season record, becoming the first team based in Victoria to win the title since the 1980–81 Victoria Cougars. The playoffs began on March 24, 2016, and ended on May 13, 2016. The Brandon Wheat Kings won their third Ed Chynoweth Cup—their first since 1995–96—and a berth in the 2016 Memorial Cup tournament, which was held at the ENMAX Centrium in Red Deer, Alberta from May 19 to 29, 2016. The Red Deer Rebels qualified for the tournament as hosts.
The Canadian Professional Rodeo Association (CPRA) is the governing body of professional rodeo in Canada. Its championship event is the Canadian Finals Rodeo (CFR) held every autumn.
Servus Arena is a multi-purpose indoor arena in downtown Red Deer, Alberta. Opened in January 2018, it was constructed on the site of the former Red Deer Arena.
The 2021 World Junior Ice Hockey Championships were the 45th edition of the Ice Hockey World Junior Championship. It began on December 25, 2020, and ended with the gold medal game on January 5, 2021. This marked the 16th time that Canada hosted the WJIHC. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic in Canada, it was hosted in a "bubble" behind closed doors in Edmonton, Alberta, with no spectators admitted for any game.
The 2022 World Junior Ice Hockey Championships were the 46th edition of the Ice Hockey World Junior Championship, played from August 9 to 20, 2022 at Rogers Place in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada.
Connor Bedard is a Canadian professional ice hockey centre for the Chicago Blackhawks of the National Hockey League (NHL). Considered one of the greatest ice hockey prospects of his generation, he was selected first overall by the Blackhawks in the 2023 NHL entry draft and made his NHL debut that year. Bedard would go on to win the Calder Memorial Trophy as rookie of the year in 2024.
A bio-secure bubble, also known as a bubble, or hub city, was a hosting arrangement for sporting events that emerged during the COVID-19 pandemic, under which events were held at a centralized site, often behind closed doors, with strict quarantine and safety protocols in order to prevent the spread of COVID-19. A bubble was established for a single sports season, tournament, or for an ongoing series of events, allowing them to still be held and made available to broadcast audiences.
The COVID-19 pandemic caused disruption to ice hockey around the world, mirroring its impact across all sports. Around the world and to varying degrees, events and competitions were cancelled or postponed.
The 2022 Hlinka Gretzky Cup is an under-18 international ice hockey tournament held in Red Deer, Alberta, Canada from July 31, 2022 – August 6, 2022 at Peavey Mart Centrium.
