by Elizabeth Carey
Take a drive down to the Erie Basin Marina and you’ll find open waters. It’s no surprise, since this has been a mild winter so far.
Temperatures dipped into single digits this week, but the weekend forecast calls for 40-degree temperatures once again. That’s not exactly the type of weather that will freeze water … especially if you need 12 inches of solid ice to host the annual Labatt Blue Pond Hockey Tournament.
The event is slated for February, but waves splashing up at the marina have organizers worried.
“We do need a minimum of 12 inches of ice to be safe,” Brett Carlsen with Labatt Blue told WKBW-TV’s Eyewitness News. If the water doesn’t freeze? “We’ll have to cancel it, unfortunately,” Carlsen added.
That would leave many hockey players and fans upset. This year, the fifth annual event sold out just 15 minutes after registration opened. Carlsen says more than 1,000 hockey players are signed up to take part.
County Executive Mark Poloncarz tells Eyewitness News that Erie County is willing to help out if organizers need to shift the event to another location. “We have two large outdoor facilities at Como Park,” Poloncarz said. “They don’t require 12 inches of ice, only two or three inches of ice is necessary to skate in Como Park.”
City of Buffalo officials plan to meet with event organizers in the near future.
Come February, will 40-plus teams compete on frozen ice at Erie Basin Marina? Or will waves wash the plans away? Or possibly send them sailing to a new location?
“Mother Nature dictates the conditions and we have to listen to her and do what she tells us,” Carlsen said.
Stay Tuned.
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