Minto Cup coming to St. Catharines
The Minto Cup is coming back to St. Catharines for the first time in almost a quarter of a century.
St. Catharines has been chosen as the host location for the 2025 Minto Cup, the National Junior A Lacrosse Championship of Canada. The tournament was last held in St. Catharines in 2001 when the host St. Catharines WMKL Athletics prevailed.
Bid presentations were held Sunday where the Athletics earned the honour to host the tournament. The Athletics were the only team to put forward a bid. The A’s were slated to host the 2020 Minto Cup, which was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
“It’s obviously surreal,” Athletics president Paul Coates said. “It’s something I think we thought was going to take place in 2020 so it is our opportunity.
“We have a tremendous lacrosse following in the Niagara area and we know we can put on a great show.”
Coates said the bid was a culmination of a lot of hard work.
“We worked in conjunction with Sport Niagara, Doug Hamilton has been involved in this whole process, and the key members of our organizing committee being Todd Zavitz and Dan Pilon, who performed the majority of the presentation and absolutely hit a home run,” Coates said.
Coates said the City of St. Catharines was also vital in the bid.
“I cannot say enough good things about working with the city. They have been instrumental in getting us to this point with the bid and they’re great partners to work with.”
St. Catharines mayor Mat Siscoe is looking forward to the event.
“The upcoming 2025 Minto Cup presents another exciting opportunity to highlight the hospitality and hosting excellence of St. Catharines,” he said. “With a deep-rooted history in the sport, we anticipate strong support from our community, reminiscent of the enthusiasm shown during the lacrosse events at the Niagara 2022 Canada Summer Games and the victorious home claim of the Minto Cup by the Athletics in 2001.”
The Meridian Centre will serve as the premier venue for the Minto Cup from Aug. 16 to Aug. 24, 2025. Over nine days, lacrosse enthusiasts can expect a spectacular celebration of Canada’s national summer sport, featuring the best lacrosse in the country, cultural gatherings, fan festivals, and more.
“We want to have a fanfest kind of experience where we have some events in the lower parking lot, potentially something in Market Square,” Coates said. “We will, as a host committee, sit down and look at what’s feasible. At the end of the day, you always have to remember you are here to play lacrosse and that’s extremely important. Our organization still runs two teams and we have two summers of lacrosse before we even get to the week of the Minto Cup.
“We definitely want to maximize the opportunity to showcase the Minto Cup in Niagara and put events on that feature that. We also want to want to promote to upstate New York where lacrosse has grown and the ability to draw fans from that market exists.”
For the 2025 Minto Cup, Ontario’s representation will include the Ontario champion and the host Athletics. In the event that the Athletics emerge as the Ontario champion, the Ontario finalist will also secure participation in the event.
The Minto Cup is the national junior men’s lacrosse championship of Canada. It was donated in 1901 by the Governor-General, Lord Minto and is competed for annually by the Junior A provincial champions of Alberta (RMLL), British Columbia (BCJALL), and Ontario (OJLL).
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