Windsor officially backs Memorial Cup bid with $30K

The City of Windsor will spend $30,000 to back its latest bid to bring the 2017 Memorial Cup hockey tournament to the city.

Councillors agreed Monday night to launch a campaign to support the Windsor Spitfires in yet another attempt to host the CHL MasterCard Memorial Cup.

"We'll engage seniors. We'llengage youth. We'll engage anyone who is interested in hockey," Mayor Drew Dilkens said Tuesday.

The Spitfires submitted its letter of intent in February. It's the team's third attempt to land the tournament in six years. The tournament determines the Canadian Junior Hockey League champion each year.

Windsor hosted the tournament in 1981.

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Coun. RinoBortolindid not support the proposal Dilkensdropped late at the end of the meeting. Bortolin would preferto have had a full report on how the city will spend the money.

"The decision was made somewhat blindly because those details were not presented to us at council," he said. "Near the end of a long five- orsix-hour meeting, you get to the point where you're rushing through things at the end of the agenda."

Dilkens said there was no time to prepare a report for council because the Spitfires found out they were short-listed for the bid on Friday. After Monday, council won't meet until March 29, which is just a couple weeks before the full bid will be submitted.

"We had to act quick in order to get the money in order to execute the campaign," Dilkens said.

Windsor's newly appointed sports tourism officer, Samantha Magalas, said she'd make bringing the tournament to the city one of her main priorities. She started in her new position in February.

After being hired in January, Magalas said the economic spin-off effects of big tournaments like the Memorial Cup would make a difference in Windsor's economy.