By SCOTT TRUDEAU Penticton Herald Monday, December 7, 2009
Five businesses have banded together in an effort for a Christmas Charity Challenge for this Saturday‘s home game between the Penticton Vees and their arch rival Vernon Vipers. If at least 3,500 fans are in the stands for the game the following business people will pledge $1,000 towards a specific charity: The Pasta Factory, Duane Jordan (OSNS Child Development Centre); The Mortgage Centre, Rene Carloni (Be an Angel); Sears Flooring, Joe Afonso (South Okanagan Medical Foundation); Underwriters Insurance Brokers, Neil Jamieson (Soupateria) and Coldwell Banker realtors Brian and Joni Cutler (South Okanagan Women in Need Society). It‘s also two admissions for the price of one night provided you bring a non-perishable food item for the Salvation Army. There will also be special $2 concession items available on Saturday including beer.
Kevin Conway, a member of the 1954 Allan Cup champs and the 1955 World Champion Vees, talked about playing in front of a large crowd at Memorial Arena. “The thing is with the new facility in Penticton, which is fantastic, it holds 5,000 people,” he said. “If you get 1,500 people in there, it doesn‘t look like a big crowd but you get 1,800 people at the old Memorial and the place is jammed. That‘s what the old time hockey was about and people will have to get used to that here until the crowds get bigger.” He estimated crowds of between 3,000 and 4,000 packed into Memorial Arena when the Allan Cup finals were happening. “On the final game, the seventh game … they figure there was 4,500 people at the arena plus another couple thousand people outside,” said Conway. “It was an unusual time in hockey. We had three fantastic years and this was the fourth.” For some reason, fans really took to hockey in what was then a town with a population of about 10,000 and in the 1950s there may have not been as much to do so fans would travel from throughout the South Okanagan-Similkameen just to watch a game. “They came from everywhere because they just fell in love with the Vees,” he said. “We were just a bunch of young guys raring to go.”
Conway likes the idea of the Charity Challenge and believes that attendance number will start to rise. “I think it‘s just a sign of the times,” he said. “Things are tough right now. You get three or four things going on at the arena each week, two or three concerts in three weeks and then four hockey games and there‘s just so much money.” There is ample enthusiasm for the Vees and there‘s no reason why crowds will start to come around. “Everything should straighten out, definitely,” he said. “There‘s a beautiful rink there and people should be ale to get there.” Game time is 7 p.m. Fans are advised to purchase tickets in advance.
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