Shortly after the final buzzer goes during the Western Hockey League game between the Moose Jaw Warriors and Swift Current Broncos on Friday night, a small army of workers will spring into action at the Moose Jaw Events Centre.
While they won’t have an inordinate amount of work to do in order to get things ready for the Saskatchewan Rush exhibition game 24 hours later, the changeover will be the first of it’s kind for everyone involved, which will mean a bit of an on-the-job learning experience.
That’s not much of a concern for Moose Jaw Events Centre director of marketing and business development Corey Nyhagen, though -- what needs to be done will get done in plenty of time for the first on-floor practices at 9 a.m. Saturday.
“It’s an interesting thing because it usually takes them a couple of hours in Saskatoon to change over, but this turf has never been in a different arena like this,” Nyhagen said during a brief break from last-minute preparations on Thursday.
Everything needed to facilitate the changeover is already on site, including the massive rolls of turf that will go down over the traditional sport court flooring. The turf then has to be stretched, allowed to settle and then put into final place, a process that will take a few more hours from start to finish.
From there, it’ll be a matter of game-day things like installing the shot clock and signage, all of which Nyhagen expects will be in place and finished well before the doors open at 5:30 p.m.
“Logistically, I think the Rush have done a fantastic job of keeping us in the loop with what’s going to happen and everything we need to do to help them out,” he said. “They do this all the time, but the only difference is doing it here and outside their own building.”
Once that work is done, a completely different sort of preparation will start to take place.
The kind of preparations a host does when they’re about to see one of the largest events the community has seen since Connor Bedard’s final game in the building eight months ago.
As of Friday afternoon, only around 150 tickets remained for the game, with a standing-room-only crowd of close to 4,600 fans expected to pack the building to see the Rush take on the Calgary Roughnecks in the first-ever National Lacrosse League exhibition game in Canada’s Most Notorious City.
A crowd that size offers unique challenges, ones the MJEC staff are gearing up to deal with from every angle.
“We run a pretty good ship when we have everyone on and that should be the case this time, too,” Nyhagen said. “The concessions are fully loaded and ready to go, then dispersing beverages around the building will help take some of the pressure off, as well. So we’re hoping it’ll all run as smoothly as possible and everyone will have patience if there are any lines.”
One way the Events Centre is aiming to reduce waits is with the aforementioned beer stations all over the concourse, which will sell $5 beverages on a cash-only basis.
Given how many people will be in the building, Nyhagen recommends getting to the arena early to help reduce congestion at entrances closer to game time.
“We haven’t seen something this big for a while and everyone is going to be working super hard to serve everybody and get everybody through,” he said. “There isn’t that 15-minute intermission twice a game to go stand in lines or go to the bathroom and get a drink, you go when you go because it’s just non-stop action and a completely different beast.
“Other than that, we want everyone to have a blast and have fun because if everything goes as well as we expect it will, we’d like to make this an annual event.”
Having fun shouldn’t be too much of a problem.
The Rush are basically importing their entire Sask Place show down south, which -- as anyone who has been to a Rush game in Saskatoon can attest to --- will make for a unique experience.
“It is a Rush exhibition game, but it’s a Rush show,” Nyhagen said. “The pyro is coming, the dance team is coming, the DJ is coming and the whole nine yards is coming… if you haven’t been to a game up in Saskatoon, you’re in for a real treat.”
Doors open at 5:30 p.m. with all the game-time action getting underway at 7 p.m.
To see if you can snag some of the last tickets, check out www.sasktix.ca and for more on the Rush and their NLL season, visit www.saskrush.com.
