USA Hockey Adult Hockey

USAHockey.com

USA Hockey recognizes the prolific growth the Labatt Blue/USA Hockey Pond Hockey National Championships have experienced since it began six years ago. However, staff still are shocked when they look at the numbers.
The tournament has grown the number of teams by more than 600 percent in six years, from 40 to 250, and expanded the number of rinks by 400 percent, 6 to 24 rinks.
“I would describe the growth as phenomenal,” said Ashley Bevan, senior director of USA Hockey’s adult department.
When the tournament began in 2006, Eagle River, Wis., embraced a hockey tournament and hoped it would grow one day into an event the community could be proud of. Community members and USA Hockey staff didn’t imagine how fast the tournament would reach that goal.
“We never expected it to be this big and this popular,” Bevan said.
USA Hockey strived from the beginning to grow the event through customer service and providing an overall experience that would be memorable to attendees.
“It goes back to what we’ve done with all our adult events. We provide a quality event and the adult players will continue to come back,” Bevan said.
The competition to land a registration has grown fierce in the past two years and as demand increases. The demand to expand isn’t prime in Bevan’s mind, however.
“The lake is huge so we could always provide more rinks, but the key for us is how do we grow and continue to provide each player with a good experience with such a large number,” he said. “As long as we can continue to accomplish that we’ll add more teams.”