There'll be something a little
different when the Kitchener-Waterloo Kodiaks entertain the
Peterborough Lakers in a June 8 Major Series Lacrosse game. Rather
than playing the contest in their usual home arena, the Kodiaks will
face off with the defending Mann Cup champions in front of thousands
of fans in Kingston's K-Rock Centre. That's the plan, anyway, for the First Capital Cup.
The game is the brainchild of Kodiaks'
owner Al Orth and his business officer/executive assistant for
his job in Queen's University's human resources department, Nicole
Fowler. It is being held June 8 to coincide with the Kingston
Krossfire minor lacrosse tournament, which is expected to have 40
teams across the minor age groups. The registration fee for the
tournament includes tickets to the game, so Orth and Fowler envision
an arena full of young players and their parents and coaches watching
what should be an exciting early-season game.
The Kodiaks are on an upward
trajectory, having shown marked improvement last year then adding a
wealth of talent in this year's MSL junior draft, including taking
Jeremy and Jason Noble with the top two picks. It's
unlikely that Jeremy will play in Kitchener this year because he will
be in school in Denver as well as playing in the Major League
Lacrosse field league, but he is expected to join the club in future
summers. In all, KW added six graduates of the Minto Cup champion
Orangeville Northmen as well as rugged and talented defender Mitchell
Wilde from the Whitby Warriors.
The Lakers will be looking to win their
sixth Mann Cup in a decade. They'll be missing Mac Allen and
Andrew Suitor because of knee injuries but sub in NLL star
defenders Brock Sorensen and Mike Hobbins, both
returning from injuries that kept them out last summer. That's just
the way you roll when you're in the midst of a run of success playing
out in front of large, adoring crowds the way the Lakers are.
If Orth's and Fowler's vision for the
First Capital Cup come to fruition, the Lakers will feel right at
home, given that the organizers expect the largest crowd of the MSL
season to attend the game. Their goal is to get at least 4,000 fans
out for the game, which is right at the capacity of Peterborough's
home rink, so if they are successful it will indeed be the biggest
group to watch an MSL game this summer.
Orth says the 4,000 target is very
realistic. They weren't sure how the response would be, since
Kingston is perceived to be a hockey town, but Orth and Fowler say
they have been overwhelmed by the excitement the game is generating.
“Companies have already been reserving their suites for the game,”
Orth told IL Indoor. “The K-Rock Centre has a first-in-line
offer for their regular customers and within 48 hours of the game
being announced on their site they had over 100 sales just through
that.”
While a hundred sales may seem like a
far cry from the 4,000 they anticipate by game day, Orth explains
that those sales were just from folks who happened to see the game
posted on the K-Rock web site, with no promotion whatsoever.
Their excitement is further boosted by
the response they've had from the local business community. Fowler,
who previously served as the president of the Kingston minor
association, says they went in to see people ready to put on a sales
pitch but it was unnecessary. “Folks just offered to help right
away,” she says.
An added bonus associated with the game
is a clinic that will be put on by Lakers' players Brad Self
and Shawn Evans, co-founders of Nationwide Lacrosse. They'll
run the clinic for 2-3 hours on the day of the game. They're also
scheduled to attend a Kingston Lacrosse Association clinic tonight
(Wednesday April 3) and will be hosting a Nationwide week-long clinic
in Kingston July 29-August 1.
For more information about the game,
visit the FirstCapital Cup website. It has details and a link to purchase
tickets online. For more information about clinics with Self and
Evans you can visit the NationwideLacrosse website.
