Trump trumps Cup: Oilers fans say ‘not this year’ to Florida playoff travel

Ahead of the 2024 Stanley Cup Final, Edmonton’s Travel Gurus pre-booked 20 rooms in hotels near Amerant Bank Arena in Sunrise, Fla.

Ahead of this year’s championship rematch between the Oilers and the Florida Panthers, the agency has only pre-booked 10 rooms. And, of those, four of them are still available. Six of them went to a crew of what manager Hidar Elmais calls “regulars” who went to road playoff games in Los Angeles, Las Vegas and Dallas. This group of a dozen friends were so confident in the Oil (and the Panthers), that they booked their tickets and hotel to Florida before the Western Conference Final was decided.

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But, outside of that crew, the calls are down.

“There isn’t too much interest outside of the diehards,” said Elmais. “We hope it picks up.”

Elmais said the effect of Donald Trump’s tariff and 51st state rhetoric, which has impacted Canadian travel to the U.S., is hurting interest in seeing the Oilers play in the Panthers’ den.

“The tensions between the United States and Canada is even having an effect on sports,” he said.

At Newwest Travel & Cruises, an Edmonton travel agency that began as sports-tourism specialists, there were a steady stream of calls through Friday. Agent Karilynn Stanners said that it’s hard to book packages for the Cup final, because there is such short notice. It’s not like booking travel to a Formula One race, a World Cup match or a Super Bowl, where people often know years out when and where an event will happen.

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“I don’t think hockey fans care about the politics,” she said. “They’ll do anything to support their team. And, in the NHL, most of the teams are located in the U.S.”

She has a client who has gone to the Oilers’ first two road games in each of the previous three rounds. That client is already set for Games 3 and 4 in Florida. She said business was good for the first round against Los Angeles and the second round which saw the Oilers vanquish the Vegas Golden Knights.

But it dropped off for the Western Conference Final against Dallas.

The Dallas drop off, she said, was because of the air travel hassles to get there. Due to the general drop in Canadians travelling to the U.S. since Trump became president, Canadian airlines have reduced flights across the border and even chopped some routes. That has made connecting between Dallas and Edmonton more difficult. So, in this sense, Trump has had an indirect effect. And this may also play into fans’ decision about whether or not to go to the Greater Miami area.

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Edmonton-Dallas is 3,145 kilometres. It is 4,813 kilometres from Edmonton to Sunrise, Fla. So the flight connections won’t get any easier.

Despite the dour forecasts from local travel agents, the AC Hotel Fort Lauderdale Sawgrass, which is listed as the hotel closest to the Panthers home arena, is completely sold out of rooms for the night of June 9, when Game 3 is set. The DoubleTree by Hilton, which is also within walking distance of the arena, is listed as having low availability for the night of Game 3.

Curtis Crider, the president and CEO of the Greater Miami and the Beaches Hotel Association, hopes Edmontonians will make a big return to his city for the Panthers-Oilers, Part II.

“This going to be great rematch between two of the best teams in the NHL,” he said.

He believes the lure of major sporting events transcends any issues foreign visitors may have with the current state of American politics.

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“This is like a Super Bowl. It’s an event that will attract visitors from not only Canada, but other parts of the world, to watch these two great teams.”

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis’s office said that in 2024, the state set a new record when it came to tourism numbers. A record 142.9 million people visited the southern state in 2024, with 3.3 million being Canadians.

ssandor@postmedia.com

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