Fans: Making a personal connection
by Deborah Nobes
for CBC Sports Online

Roberta MacBurnie stands in the last row of the VIP section of the K.C. Irving Centre hockey rink, shaking her Cape Breton flag and bellowing loud for her boy David, number 17 and a forward for team Nova Scotia, to bring that puck down the ice toward the Ontario goal.

“That’s it dear, bring it down, dear. GO!” She yells loud enough to be heard over the roar of the approximately 3,000 fans that turned out Monday night to watch the underdog Nova Scotia boys battle Ontario. “Good play dear!” And then, to whoever else was listening: “That’s my son David down there. The one with the puck.”

Team Nova Scotia's Cape Breton cheering section at the K.C. Irving Centre in Bathurst

As one of a trio of Cape Breton mothers who’ve waited “about a hundred years” to see their sons play at the 2003 Canada Winter Games, MacBurnie wasn’t about to sit still while her blood kin was on the ice.

She’s not alone. With more than 3,200 athletes in the Bathurst-Campbellton region for the games, there are at least twice that many mothers, fathers, sisters and brothers here to cheer them on. Games organizers estimate the region’s population will swell by about 10,000 for the two-week event, filling venues with flag-waving, chest-swelling enthusiasm.

At the Nova Scotia-Ontario hockey game -- a knee-knocker for the first two periods as the blue nosers held their own until they finally succumbed to Ontario with a final score of 8-5 -- hometown pride was manifest in the dozens of Nova Scotia flags that fluttered every minute their brothers, sons and nephews were on the ice.

Simon Rizk was the most obvious Ontario superfan in the crowd, clad startlingly in white and red body makeup and waving a giant flag. The 21-year-old psychology student at the Université de Moncton says he’s studying the effect of fan enthusiasm on team performance, though that wasn’t the only reason he was standing half-naked in front of the glass.

“My little brother is the captain of the Ontario team,” he admits, pointing to Jean-Michel Rizk of New Liskeard, skating down the ice. “I’m doing this because I love my little brother.”

Universite de Moncton student Simon Rizk cheers for his brother, Jean-Michel, captain of the Ontario men's hockey team

But it’s not just family connections that bring out passion for the game. Retired plumber Ernie Scott drove three hours from Fredericton to spend a week taking in hockey with his friend Dave Miller. They are so dedicated they bought tickets to the gold medal round two months ago to make sure they wouldn’t miss out.

“I just came up for the hockey. Not much time to do anything else,” says Scott.

The big turnout has to be a relief for Games organizers, who plowed through financial and geographical challenges only to have a severe winter storm set back the entire games schedule on Day Two of the event. Organizers don’t have a running tally, but say ticket sales to most venues are brisk. The hockey medal rounds were, of course, sold out weeks ago and people are still snapping up weekly passes at $30 apiece to crowd into events like curling and speed skating.

“I’d say ticket sales are going really well,” says Chuck Johnstone, VP of box office marketing for the games. “We’re only at Day Three, so it’s hard to put a figure on it yet but selling tickets isn’t really a worry.”

All this hype has to help the athletes actually competing. Most of them are young teenagers who consider the Canada Games the next best thing to a berth at the Olympics.

Chad Trenholme’s stepson Nathan Welton plays hockey for Nova Scotia, and says a hometown cheering squad gives young athletes the confidence they need to get a jump on their competition.

“As a player, it’s certainly nice to hear all that support,” he says. ”They [the players] might say afterward that they were only focused on the game, but they can hear it and it gets their juices flowing and hopefully it can give them that extra bit of adrenaline they need.”