Want to buy a piece of hockey history? Pond where sport began up for sale
The pond where many believe Canada's favourite sport was born is up for sale.
Long Pond in Windsor, N.S., is on the market for $1.38 million, a deal that includes roughly 6 surrounding hectares — not to mention the bragging rights that come with being the "cradle of hockey."
The town has long laid claim to hockey's origins, citing historians who described a game akin to hockey, called hurley, being played on Long Pond as early as the 1800s.
The property has been in Danny Dill's family since 1878, when his ancestors bought the land for $5,000.
But the Dills aren't solely in the hockey business. They also grow giant pumpkins and host an annual pumpkin regatta.
So the family had to make a difficult decision: pumpkins or the pond?
"It's like a tug of war, and it's like, you know, the pumpkins and the farm come first," Dill told CBC's Mainstreet.
The property about 50 minutes northwest of Halifax has attracted hockey enthusiasts from near and far for decades.
It's also the site of the annual Long Pond Heritage Classic, where players don old-timey jerseys and raise money for the local heritage hockey museum.
"All Windsor had was Long Pond, and thankfully my dad being the hockey nut... that he was his whole life, it was like fate," Dill said.
Dill's father, Howard Dill, started amassing hockey memorabilia in the 1940s, a collection that grew over the years and is available for people to view in a small museum on the family's farm, separate from the land that's currently up for sale.
The collection includes hand-written hockey statistics, signed photographs from superstars like Bobby Orr and pucks found on the property that are more than a 100 years old.
Dill hopes the new owner will fulfil his dad's dream of seeing the property turn into the Canadian equivalent of Cooperstown, N.Y., the home of the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum.
Anna Allen, the mayor of Windsor, said news that Long Pond was up for sale came as a surprise, but she supports the Dill's decision.
The town is in no position financially to buy the property, she added.
"I guess deep down we all kind of know this can't go on forever, that something has to happen there, and we leave it up to the Dills," Allen told CBC's Maritime Noon.
Town council held a special meeting earlier this week to discuss the impending sale. While council won't have a direct say in what happens to the property, Allen said the new owners will have some constraints.
"I can't see a 10-storey hotel going there, put it that way," she said.
She said town council is eager to work with anyone who has a vision for the unique property.
The community has tried in the past to honour its hockey history by building a museum — and then a rink — on the Long Pond spot, but neither project came to fruition.
"I can't explain exactly what happened in terms of why some people felt the way they did, but I can say that it's time to have something there," Allen said. "Because we've been celebrating this hockey heritage for close to 30 years now."
She expects there will be a lot of interest in the property.
"This is a global event and I expect to have a lot of discussion around this globally as well as locally," she said.
Landing on a sale price wasn't easy, said Dill, given that he's seen hockey sticks that sell for $200,000 and a rookie card net half a million dollars.
But the hefty price tag is about more than just the pond and surrounding property. The new owner will also get the Long Pond trademark. The name has been trademarked since 2005.
"The possibilities are endless for merchandising and so forth," Dill said.
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