Street Hockey Tournament Achieves Goal of Over 200 Teams! 

They did it! The 4th annual Walter Gretzky Street Hockey Tournament has reached its goal of registering over 200 teams…205 to be exact. The goal was set back in February with the hope of breaking the Guinness Book of World Records for the most teams registered in a street hockey tournament. The current record, set in Ladysmith, British Columbia, on June 3, 2007, is for 192 teams with a total of 2010 players participating.

The committee for the Walter Gretzky Street Hockey Tournament will be filing an application to Guinness following the tournament to recognize this outstanding achievement.

Kevin Smith, international film producer, director and actor is returning again this year to participate in the tournament and also to host ‘Stocky Night in Canada 2’ at the Sanderson Centre for the Performing Arts on June 5 at 8:00 p.m. Tickets are still available - click here to be redirected to order yours today!  This will open in a new browser window. 

Quote from Kevin Smith

"I love you Canada, and can't thank you enough!  You came through for Wally in a BIG way!

This wasn't just my way of saying thanks to Walter for all he's ever done; apparently, it was the way over 2000 people - men and women, boys and girls, North Americans and even some folks from overseas - wanted to say it, too.  I can't thank you all enough for the Gretzky-like assist in putting Wally's little backyard tourney in the ... record books!

Huge thanks go to idea-man Clayton Hernden, who came up with the idea to chase the record after last year's tourney. It gave us a way to get cats interested in coming out for an amazingly fun weekend in what Mr. Gretzky rightly calls "the Center of the Universe."

Also, lots of credit goes to the boys at the Dean Blundell Show, who've helped with the tourney two years running now.  And thanks, as well, to Strombo and every Canadian media outlet on hand the day Walter & I announced both the tourney and the Guinness goal back in early February at Gretzky's in Toronto. That includes all the tv shows and talk radio programs that hosted us that day, too.  Hockey is alive and well in the hearts of everybody who helped us sell not only this awesome tournament, but also, The Game itself."

Quote from Title Sponsor

“Legacy Card is honoured to be the title sponsor of this wonderful event.  It has been extremely rewarding to work with the Walter Gretzky Street Hockey Tournament and the City of Brantford.  We are also thrilled to be able to bring such high profile musical acts like Our Lady Peace, The Trews, Marianas Trench and great local bands like Dry County to the area for our Hockeyfest Music Festival.  Our hope is that the community embraces this event as their own for many years to come,” said Ralph Spoltore from Legacy Card.

For more information on Hockeyfest, click here to visit the official website.  This will open in a new browser window.   Tickets are $39.99 in advance for the Saturday night performance.

The 4th annual Walter Gretzky Street Hockey Tournament will be hosted in Brantford from June 4 to 6 at the Ball Hockey International venue located at the Steve Brown Sports Complex/Lions Park. Walter will be on-hand to welcome everyone to Brantford for a weekend of fun and sport. This year, there will be a kids Fun Zone on-site with everything from a Superman Magic Show, putting green, and Lowe’s Build & Grow, to a hockey shoot-out area, and so much more. There will also be numerous vendors selling a variety of food and beverages.

Metro Foods will be on-hand to accept donations of non-perishable food items in support of the CRS Food Bank. Bring an item and be entered to win a pizza party with Walter Gretzky or 1 of 4 $100 Metro food cards.

Proceeds from this year’s tournament will benefit the Brantford Sports Infrastructure Legacy Fund and the Walter and Wayne Gretzky Scholarship Foundation for the Blind Youth of Canada.

The 4th annual Walter Gretzky Street Hockey Tournament would like to thank the following sponsors:

  • BHI Brantford
  • CNIB
  • Tournaent Capital of Ontario
  • Legacy Card
  • Gretzky.com
  • View Askew
  • Lowe’s Home Improvement Warehouse
  • RIM
  • SC Johnson
  • Scotiabank
  • 107.5 Dave FM
  • AM 900 CHML
  • Brant News
  • Henry’s
  • NHL Home Ice
  • SportsXpress
  • The Expositor
  • The Jewel FM92
  • XM Radio
  • Y108 Rocks

Please note, all media are asked to register at the MEDIA TENT upon arrival to ensure access to tournament VIP’s and for the best coverage of the opening ceremonies. The official game schedule will be released on Tuesday, June 1 and can be accessed by clicking here to open the schedule in a new browser window.   The time for the opening ceremonies on Saturday, June 5 will be set and released at that time.  Following the ceremony, a Q&A with Walter Gretzky and Kevin Smith will be held.

No representatives from Guinness will be present. They have been notified of the attempt and the World Record submission will be made by the organizing committee following the tournament.