The Town of Okotoks and Pason Centennial Arena have been nominated as a potential candidate to be the next Kraft Hockeyville.

The winner of the Hockeyville contest win $100,000 in arena upgrades and gets to play host to an NHL exhibition game next season.

Nominator for the contest Deana Halifax says the reason she nominated Okotoks for Hockeyville was her love for the community and the game.

"I've been a hockey mom for 15 years in Okotoks," she says. "I still have one child left in Bantam and I keep seeing this town grow and grow with lots of young families and I would just hate to see child not be able to play hockey because we don't have enough ice."

She says she hopes Okotoks can win the Hockeyville contest and the prize money can be used to help in the twinning of Pason Arena where another NHL sized ice surface and leisure rink is expected to be built by the 2017 hockey season.

"A lot of the players are travelling outside of Okotoks for practices," she says. "My daughter is in Bantam and she goes to Stavely, Black Diamond and DeWinton. Because we don't have enough ice time here."

The contest is officially on and if you'd like to see Okotoks be named Hockeyville, a social media initiative is being started and will be monitored by the Hockeyville selection committee.


Halifax say anyone using Facebook or Twitter should start using the Okotoks Hockeyville custom hashtag #KHV_PasonCentArena

"If you post something on Facebook and you use our hastag, everything that is posted about the nomination or our community its being tracked by Hockeyville," she says. "So they can tell how much the community is getting involved with it."

Other social media platforms like Instagram are also an option.