More than 150 people braved the cold temperatures to join the live broadcast of Rogers Hometown Hockey to cap off the event in Belleville Monday night.
Weather as chilly as six degrees didn’t stop local hockey fans as they poured into the parking lot across from Belleville City Hall for their chance to be part of a live broadcast viewed by millions across the country.
Gates opened at 7 p.m. and the lineup of people, which stretched down the sidewalk, filed in to get their place behind the Sportsnet mobile studio just feet away from where Ron MacLean and Tara Slone sat.
The broadcast capped off a weekend of Hometown Hockey activities that took place outside the Quinte Sports and Wellness Centre.
Many fans donned Trenton or Quinte West Golden Hawks jerseys, Belleville Bulls jerseys or simply their favourite NHL team’s jersey.
The opening portion of the broadcast featured local hockey legend Jayna Hefford, born in Trenton, who is a four time Olympic gold medal winner and a seven time Women’s World Championship gold medal winner.
The featured game for the broadcast was the Ottawa Senators visiting the Chicago Blackhawks.
Belleville Chamber of Commerce Chief Executive Officer Jill Raycroft said she was happy that so many across the country would get to learn about the city.
“I think the best part about being a part of Rogers Hometown Hockey is the perspective the nation gets on our community. Even though we had kind of crappy weather this weekend and the activations may not have been as well attended as they would have been if it had been sunny and warm, it’s still an impressive opportunity and what will happen at the broadcast on Monday night and what people will see on TV about Belleville will be pretty cool. They have a way of making our town shine and I’m looking forward to watching it later.”
She said she felt that it was, once again, well received by the community.
Belleville Mayor Mitch Panciuk was also in attendance at the event and he echoed Raycroft’s comments.
“I think we’re really excited. We’re going to get a lot of eyeballs on our wonderful city. We’ve known how great of a place this is to live. This is the chance for us to share it with all of Canada. We’re excited that Rogers would recognize us as a place they wanted to come back to for a second time, it’s one of the rarer cities, but also we’re excited about how good of a job our local chamber of commerce did in organizing this.”
He said that the exposure for the city on a national stage is a great opportunity for the city.
“It’s literally millions of dollars worth of advertising for our community and we’ve had a pretty good run the last little while about people recognizing we’re a good place, but the comments that I had this afternoon when I was at the fire station taping the ‘cold entry’ I think they call it, Tara and Ron really like Belleville and they’ve done a lot of research on Belleville and they think we’re a great community and that just validates it for us. We all know that we live in a great place, we’re very lucky to be here, but when other people say that it makes us feel better.”
McLean and Slone visited the National Air Force Museum of Canada at CFB Trenton, covered the hockey history of the Bay of Quinte including the Belleville McFarlands, the Belleville Bulls, the Belleville Senators, the Trenton Golden Hawks and the Wellington Dukes as well as local hockey talents Andrew Shaw, Brad Richardson, Andrew Raycroft, Elizabeth Manley the Hulls and Hefford.
Manley and Shaw also both joined the broadcast.
Fans stood, smiled, cheered and waved when the broadcast went live as they stood in background behind Slone and MacLean on live national television.
The broadcast once again used city hall as the backdrop for the production.
You can see pictures from the night’s event below.
Fans waited patiently through chilly weather to catch a glimpse of themselves on national television. (Photo: Ryan Peddigrew/Quinte News)
Many fans in attendance at the second Rogers Hometown Hockey Belleville event wore jerseys featuring local teams. (Photo: Ryan Peddigrew/Quinte News)
Fans cheered and waved as the jib camera swung around to catch live shots of the Belleville fans in attendance at the live broadcast for Rogers Hometown Hockey. (Photo: Ryan Peddigrew/Quinte News)
Over 150 people piled into the parking lot across from Belleville City Hall to take in the broadcast of Rogers Hometown Hockey live from Belleville. (Photo: Ryan Peddigrew/Quinte News)
