From Rider Nation to Knight Nation: a Saskatchewan pair is hoping to adopt the Las Vegas Golden Knights as the province’s official hockey team.
Justin Reves and Greg Moore reached out to the NHL team late last year to talk about their Twitter presence. The team’s social media manager wanted to know more about their work on The Justin and Greg Show, so they decided to record a video and broadcast it on their social media channel.
“We talked about this is what we do by saying, ‘Hey Saskatchewan, adopt the Vegas Golden Knights; here’s all the reasons why,’” Reves said. “We don’t have our own team, but we can adopt them.”
The video connected with people in both Saskatchewan and Las Vegas, quickly reaching more than 100,000 views. Shortly after putting the video on social media, Reves and Moore had newly-elected Premier Scott Moe join them and presented the idea to him.
“(Moe) said ‘I’m open to the idea,’” Moore said. “So, we said why don’t we go down there and check this out.”
The Golden Knights gave them media passes to cover the team while they were in town.
“It was incredible,” Moore said. “The experience at T-Mobile Arena is stunning. I’ve been to a lot of sports arenas all over the world, really. It was top notch. The fans there are amazing. They remind me of Saskatchewan people.”
During their time in Vegas, Reves and Moore made a four-part video series in order to share their whole journey on social media.
“The actual Vegas residents, they are down to earth, they’re fun, they’re easy-going and they want to have a good time,” Moore said.
The more time they spent in the city, the more they felt the Golden Knights was the perfect team for the province. The pair said last-minute flights to Vegas are cheaper than flights to Canadian cities with NHL teams. Plus, Saskatchewan residents are already making the trip there to escape the cold and the snow.
“It’s official, the people of Vegas are like us, they want us, there’s a great connection here,” Reves said. “We need to start a petition to make this happen.”
The Golden Knights told Vegas media that they were on board with the Saskatchewan fan base adopting the team.
“They said, basically, we welcome you , Saskatchewan,” Moore said.
Premier Moe continues to support the movement. On Thursday morning, he posted a poll on his Instagram asking if Saskatchewan would support the team. At the end of the poll, 79 per cent of people voted in favour of the idea.
Since the Golden Knights are in their inaugural season, Reves and Moore said they think it’s the perfect time to adopt the team.
“If we don’t get it done by this first season, I feel like we kind of missed the boat on it,” Moore explained.
Moving forward, Reves and Moore want to see something official declaring the Vegas Golden Knights Saskatchewan’s official NHL team. Once that’s official, they plan to approach the Knights to see what they can do for Saskatchewan.
“The momentum is happening, Moore said. “Let’s just go with it.”
