Victoria pulls bid for 2020 Memorial Cup

And then there were three.

The Victoria Royals have withdrawn their bid to host the 2020 MasterCard Memorial Cup, leaving the Lethbridge Hurricanes, Kamloops Blazers and Kelowna Rockets as the remaining teams seeking to host the tournament.

A Royals spokesman says they are backing away because of the potential of community fatigue with the 2019 World Junior Championship being co-hosted by Victoria and Vancouver.

“I think we’re close. I think it’s possible we could win this bid for 2020,” Royals GM Cam Hope told play-by-play announcer Marlen Martens in an interview on Monday. “But the truth of it is there are a number of boxes that I think we will tick much, much better two or three years down the road.”