The end of November was an exciting time for the Kelowna sports scene as it was announced the Rockets would be hosting the Memorial Cup in 2026. 

"This is a thrilling night for our organization and for the city," said Rockets president and general manager Bruce Hamilton. "I can't be more proud of the group that we put together to make this bid come true and I'm thankful for the opportunity for us to have this event one more time here."

The announcement was made in a release mid-day on Wednesday, Nov. 27 and later that night, an event to celebrate the news took place at the Kelowna Yacht Club with around 50 people in attendance, including Mayor Tom Dyas.

"I wanted this to come to our community so bad," said Dyas, who added he has a sense of relief as well. "I was just elated to know that it's coming to our community. I was there in the building in 2004 when we won the cup and the memories that are there at that point in time, to be able to kind of bring that back to our community, it'll just create memories for our residents for years to come."

Dyas also added he believed Kelowna could see an economic impact of more than $30 million from the event.

In total, five teams put a bid in to host the event, the most since 2009 - the Rockets, the Medicine Hat Tigers, the Brandon Wheat Kings, the Spokane Chiefs, and the Lethbridge Hurricanes. 

Hamilton said he thought it was a fight between Kelowna and Spokane but they had a little bit of an idea on the day before the announcement that their bid was going to win. When they got told, they discovered they had won the bid unanimously in a sealed vote. 

The Rockets were set to host the Memorial Cup in 2020 but it was cancelled due to the pandemic. A few years later, Kelowna aimed to host the 2023 Memorial Cup and submitted its intent to bid but Prospera Place was deemed unfit to CHL standards and needed to be upgraded. Kamloops hosted the event that year. Since then, Prospera Place has gone and is going to go through some more renovations including a brand-new scoreboard, improved lighting and sound systems, a dedicated press box, and more.

Hamilton added that he believes two things - that the events of 2020 had nothing to do with the city winning the bid to host the 2026 event (they never mentioned it in their bid) as well as him being the Chairman of the WHL Board of Governors. This is because the team the Rockets put together to make the bid was an independent group, which included lawyer at Rush Ihas Hardwick, Dave Rush and former MLA Steve Thomson.

On Dec. 5, eight days after the announcement, CHL President Dan MacKenzie came to Kelowna with the Memorial Cup to speak about the prestigious junior hockey tournament returning to the Okanagan.

"It's a pleasure to be here at Prospera Place to make the formal announcement that Kelowna has been chosen to host the 2026 Memorial Cup," said MacKenzie.

And on the ice, Hamilton has a lot of time, including two trade deadlines to put the best team together that he can for the tournament, and has decisions to make on some of the older players, including leading scorer Andrew Cristall, who will most likely be with his NHL team, the Washington Capitals in 2025-26.

When asked about trades, Hamilton said "There would be potential for that, but you need to have a partner to dance with in order to do that." He added he still has confidence in his year's team. 

At the formal announcement, Hamilton also discussed ticket packages and said the best way to get early access to become a season ticket holder, including second-half season tickets for this season, which go on sale on Dec. 14. Additionally, the ticket packages are going to be very similar in price as they were in 2020, according to Hamilton. 

The Memorial Cup in Kelowna takes place in May 2026.