The head of the Oilers Entertainment Group (OEG) says it’ll be late November before any decision will be made on how, or if, the 2018 version of the Canadian Finals Rodeo (CFR) is staged.
Bob Nicholson confirmed to 630 CHED’s Reid Wilkins they’ll want to evaluate how the Pro Bull Riding event at Rogers Place fares, as well as the CFR at Northlands Coliseum seven weeks from now.
“Really we’ve said all along our partner is PBR. We’re going to see this goes this year. We really think the people of Edmonton and region are really going to love PBR.”
“The PBR features the Top 35 bull riders in the world and the top bulls in the business,” touts the IMG website. The OEG entered into a working relationship with IMG, so that is where Nicholson’s priorities lie.
Tickets for single performances went on sale this week, and Nicholson wants to see how that emerges out of the gate before even considering any other long range plans for CFR 45 in 2018 and beyond.
“That’s really for us to evaluate at a later date. We want to really profile the bull riding and see what happens. See where the interest is with bull riding and see what happens, see how many people show up to rodeo at the Coliseum for the last time,” Nicholson said.
“I’ve had a chat with the rodeo people They’re going to go through their last event here. We’ll have a chat with them after November but our focus right now is on PBR and make this a special event.”
Jeff Robson with the Canadian Professional Rodeo Association (CPRA) said earlier this week he thought there was a “reasonable” chance CFR 45 would move over to Rogers Place, after the Coliseum closes for good at the end of the year, the wake of a city council decision to shutter the building.
Nicholson said in the meantime they, along with Hockey Canada, will pick up talks with the city about creation of a sports academy later in October.
“Right after the election it’s going to come back,” Nicholson said. “We feel that it’ll be great for the city of Edmonton to have a six-plex, have an academy that will be hockey focused but then also open it up to other sports.”
Converting the Coliseum to a multi-sheet ice facility was looked at and then rejected by city council because of price. They realized it would be more cost effective to tear down the 40 year old building and start over.
Nicholson however said he wants to pursue making Edmonton a centre of excellence.
“So many of the school and sport are combined and these academies are really starting to pop up everywhere and we’d like to do one that would be for the top athletes but also look at it for aboriginal females and making sure that everyone can be involved in the academy.”
Mayor Don Iveson said another avenue they could explore is to retrofit the Expo Centre to include facilities for an academy there.
– With files from Reid Wilkins, 630 CHED
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