In the past, the Moose Jaw Kinsmen Sports Celebrity Banquet has been a relatively easy sell: announce the line-up, put tickets on the market and just wait for all the tables to fill up.
Traditionally, that’s meant more than 400 patrons filling the Heritage Inn ballroom for a night full of sports stories and tales, special auctions and entertainment throughout the evening.
But the 2022 edition came with some questions.
With the pandemic still raging at the beginning of the year, organizers decided to postpone from the regular first weekend of February to the current date of Saturday, Apr. 2. The combination of the new date and whether or not folks would want to gather while the coronavirus was still out there had things a bit up in the air.
So where do things stand today, a little less than a month out?
Well, if you want a ticket to this year’s show, you’ll want to get hold of a Kinsmen member in the near future, given how hot of an item they’ve become.
“To be very honest, we’re very. very close to being sold out,” said banquet chair Scott Paquin on Thursday afternoon. “Without jinxing it, I’d say we’re almost there and we’re pretty excited about that. It’s going to be back to what it was in the past and we’re expecting a really fun evening.”
After missing the previous banquet due to the pandemic, the Kinsmen didn’t mess around when it came to lining up a group of entertaining and popular speakers for 2022.
Leading the list are former NHL standouts Shayne Corson and Darcy Tucker, along with Blue Jays pitcher Jordan Romano and NFL kicker Mike Vanderjagt.
With perennial host Jamie Campbell of Sportsnet sidelined due to other commitments, the Kinsmen are welcoming back former TSN and CTV broadcaster Rod Black as the master of ceremonies.
The evening will include the always-popular live and silent auctions, featuring a host of donated sports memorabilia on top of selected items from the local business community.
To that end, the Kinsmen are looking for raffle prizes, and anyone wishing to lend a hand can contact Paquin at (306) 306-314-9108.
“We have a lot of our own sports memorabilia that we use for the silent auction, and we have some pretty neat things again this year,” Paquin said. “But raffle prizes, we’re banging on doors and talking to people and things are coming together. Then the live auction items are ready to go. We’re going to have some prints this year and a few other specialty items that are really, really cool.”
The evening will also feature the selection of community awards, including the Kinsmen Sports Achievement Award, Moose Jaw Express Sports Builder Award and Country 100 Team of the Year Award.
Folks are welcome to try and snap up the few remaining tickets, which are $150 each or $1,200 for a table of eight. But given how well sales are going, Paquin couldn’t offer any guarantees.
“it's awesome to see people wanting to get out and support us, rather than saying ‘well, we’ll let you know’, as soon as we open it up guys are saying ‘yeah, I’ll come in right now’,” Paquin said. “So that’s cool to see and we’re expecting it’s going to be a really great night.”
For the latest on the Kinsmen Sports Celebrity Banquet, keep an eye on the Kinsmen Facebook page at www.facebook.com/mjkinsmen.
