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KITCHENER WELCOMES THE WORLD
                                    
By Steve Cannon Record staff
It's been packed more often than a salesman's suitcase and has hosted
some of the biggest events in Canadian sports.But if media interest is
any measure, this week's Women's World Hockey Championship is the
biggest event ever held at Kitchener's 44-year-old Auditorium.

"Certainly,inmymemory,therehasn't been anything bigger," Keith Baulk,
the Aud's manager, said Monday as the week-long tournament got under
way.

So far, 177 media members from across the globe have applied to cover
the eight-team showcase. That's roughly twice as many as attended last
year's Skate Canada competition or the 1986 Brier curling
championship.

It's also the most to ever cover a women's hockey event. In fact, one
observer said there were more reporters at Monday's U.S.A.-Norway game
than covered the gold medal game of the world junior hockey
championship over Christmas.

But the number of scribes isn't the only difference event chairwoman
Fran Rider has noticed.

Credibility

"At other (women's hockey) championships, it was sort of a curious
media wondering "What is this new phenomenon?' " Rider said. "Now,
it's a sport with credibility, and you can feel it in the media room.
They're here because it's a good competition."

Among those interested is TV Tokyo, which has dispatched five color
commentators to Kitchener to describe the scene. Major American
outlets like the Washington Post, ESPN and CBS Sports will also be
here to take a peek.

They all smell a story, but not for the same reasons. At what other
event would you see a Sports Illustrated reporter rubbing shoulders
with a writer from Chatelaine?

"It's compelling because these athletes know they are making history,"
said Lyn Wright, a filmmaker with the National Film Board who is here
to make a documentary about Team Canada.

"They may not have it in their minds all the time, but they know
they're making history."

Wright and her cinematographer will follow the Canadian players
through this tournament and then to Japanfornext year'sOlympics.
Theirdocumentary will air on the CBC soon after.

"Ofcourse,the hopewillbeto show how Team Canada made it to the
Olympics and came home with gold," said Wright, who had been working
on another film when this idea was pitched to her.

"I thought about it for about 10 seconds. The vision of going through
the worlds with this amazing team and then to the first Olympics for
women's hockey was too good to miss."

In order to make the vision clear for the rest of the media, the City
of Kitchener and the tournament organizing committeehave spent more
than $100,000inupgrades and alterations to the Auditorium.

The major expense was $80,000 toimprovethe rink's lighting for
TheSportsNetwork,whichhas exclusivebroadcast rights for the tourney.
The rest was spent to run 50 new phones lines in the rink and to erect
temporary press boxes, said Marcia Shortreed, chairwoman of the
tournament's media committee.

To tournament organizers, it will be money well spent if Kitchener is
cast in a good light on the world stage.

"Ultimately, we'd like to see it benefit the city in general," Baulk
said. "Secondarily, we have to meet - and exceed - the expectations of
Canadian Hockey so they know what we can do for future events."

Kitchener is, after all, also trying the land the world junior hockey
champ-ionship. That, city officials realize, would be a huge event.
But then, everything is relative.

There is a point in her unfinished documentary when Wright said
Canadian coach Shannon Miller assembles her team to speak of the world
championship and tells them, "This is huge. This is huge."

That's true, not only for the players and fans, but for the city of
Kitchener, which has opened itself up for the world more than it ever
has before.

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