The CN Centre will see tens of thousands of people cycle through in the next week and a half.
It all starts this weekend with three highly anticipated events – Ice Cube’s Straight Into Canada Tour show tonight (Thursday), and then the Cougars host the Portland Winterhawks in the third round of the WHL playoffs tomorrow and Saturday.
“This is not something that is unusual for us, to flip from a game to a concert or a concert to a game,” CN Centre Manager Glen Mikkelsen told My PG Now. “It is a very important game tomorrow for the Cougars… as soon as Ice Cube gets off the stage and people are leaving the building we will start changing it over into a hockey setup right away.”
17,000 square feet of flooring is currently covering the CN Centre’s ice surface as the Ice Cube team gets ready for the show.
Once the stage, lights, and sound are torn down, CN Centre staff will get to work removing the flooring, replacing the glass, and turning the building back into a hockey rink.
“Pregame skate tomorrow is scheduled for 10:00am. The Portland team skates first, so we will need to have everything ready for then,” Mikkelsen said.
Ice Cube and both Cougars games are completely sold out.
A sold out event on three consecutive nights is something Mikkelsen is sure the CN Centre has seen before, but not in some time.
There will not be much rest after the weekend for arena staff – Cougars fans will return to the arena on Monday, Wednesday, and likely Thursday nights to watch the team take on the Winterhwaks while on the road.
Northern FanCon begins the following Friday (May 3) and runs straight through until Sunday.
Then, if the Cougars and Winterhawks need to play games 6 and 7 in their best-of-seven conference final series, two more undoubtedly sold-out crowds would return to the building next Monday and Tuesday (May 6 and 7).
“We want to thank everybody for the support,” Mikkelsen said, urging people to show up to these events with plenty of time to spare so they aren’t snarled in traffic and struggling to find parking.
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