Hockey tournament is put on ice

A more than 40-year-old Aylmer tradition fell through in 2016. For the first time in four decades, the Aylmer Hockey 30 Plus league failed to host their annual tournament. Organizers said there was insufficient interest to host the tournament.

“When I sent an email last fall soliciting volunteers to help organize the tournament, only one individual responded positively. What certain players might not realize is that it’s very expensive to put the tournament in place. It’s about $17,000 to $19,000 just for the tournament and that’s before you can start collecting funds. Seeing the lack of interest, we took the decision to cancel the tournament,” said Léo Gaulin, League president.

What does not help is that over the years the price for ice time has skyrocketed and the league no longer benefits from a past rebate. “Costs were much lower before since the league was considered a municipal partner. The league had an important rebate on ice-time costs because of its greater involvement within the community,” he explained.

When it was founded back in the mid 1970’s the league espoused a service club orientation. As a result, the league and the tournament have donated hundreds of thousands of dollars to the community.

Last year, the tournament raised $2,750 for the Aylmer Food Bank, L'Autre Chez Soi, and Access Hockey which provides financial and material support to low-income hockey families.

Funds were mainly collected through drink and food sales, notably the tournament’s traditional grub, the Choquette; a steamed hot dog in a toasted baguette.

That snack started being served years ago after someone involved in the tournament got his hands on a European hot dog machine with four toasting spikes and a wiener steamer. It remains unclear why the dogs are called Choquettes and where the machine is from. It’s part of the mystery.

The tournament is on ice this year but there’s a chance it could return in 2017. “We’ve identified a potential sponsor who would be willing to purchase our tournament in favour of the league and there would be an amount paid to the league to help with the organization,” noted Gaulin.

As for the icetime, the league president explained that the city will still give them priority over the 48 hours of ice time it has used in the past for the tournament. However, the league will lose its priority if it does not purchase the hours next year.