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‘Momentum has completely stopped’ on Vancouver hub city bid

Photo credit: Ryan Adams/Wikimedia Commons

By Zach Laing

Jun 24, 2020, 17:34 EDTUpdated: Jun 24, 2020, 18:01 EDT

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The momentum on Vancouver’s bid to be a hub city for NHL games has reportedly stopped dead in its tracks, Sportsnet’s Chris Johnston says.

Johnston was on Sportsnet 650 today and had this to say about Vancouver’s bid:

The momentum has completely stopped and I think we should all understand how fluid all these situations are because if we did this hit 24 hours ago, I would’ve been speaking about the very likelyhood in my estimation that the league was going to choose Vancouver as one of the hub cities. It doesn’t appear that is the case now, but again, I think the caveat is important because there is a lot of back and forth right now with the cities still in contention and the NHL. Aspects of bids are being tweaked or rearranged or issues that are coming up are being addressed. I don’t have full clarity into wheter that’s a possibility right now if there’s something that can reverse course here, but it did look like Vancouver was all-but-certain to become one of the hub cities, and now that appears to be in serious jeopardy.

It’s sort of amazing what 24 hours can do. Vancouver has remained to be a front runner in hub cities bids, but as Johnston noted, that doesn’t appear to be the case.

According to The Athletic’s Pierre LeBrun, some of the biggest parts of Vancouver’s bid has been: how tight the bubble could be with the main hotel being the 500-room FW Marriott Parq 400 yards from the rink and a 30,000 sq. ft. outdoor space for the players at the hotel.

On Twitter: @zjlaing