Edmonton and its performance as a hub city has drawn rave reviewsGETTY IMAGES
Oilers Owner Daryl Katz said the success of Edmonton as a hub city for the NHL's Stanley Cup Playoffs helped put the Oilers "on the map as being one of the elite franchises in the league," according to Terry Jones of the EDMONTON JOURNAL. Katz said, "People appreciated our facility. The majority of the people in Edmonton don't even understand, but I can tell you, everybody that watched the NBC feed does. They said there's nothing like Ice District anywhere. We couldn't have got more profile for Rogers Place." He added, "Edmonton has never received exposure and publicity like this. The video shots of the city with the river valley and everything were wonderful. And to hear Kenny Albert and the NBC commentators raving about Edmonton made me really proud of what all of our guys did." Katz: "We didn't make any money on this. We lost money. But it was worth it." NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman said that Katz "had been 'relentless' in his effort to make Edmonton the NHL's beginning-to-end Hub City." Katz said, "I remember one day I lectured the board of governors. Nobody said a word. They were going to go to Vegas. It's like I told them. How foolish would you be to go to Vegas?" Meanwhile, Katz said the IIHF World Junior Championships are coming to Edmonton from Dec. 26-Jan. 5 because the city is a "master-planned hub" (EDMONTON JOURNAL, 10/8).
