2023 Canadian Motorcycle Shows – Some Head Scratching
After an absence of a couple of years, the PSS Canadian motorcycles shows are back for 2023 – sort of. Few of us, if any, thought the big corporate sponsored show would return for the full six-city tour that we saw before the pandemic but the announcements of the locations for the three-city tour for 2023 does make for some head scratching.
What to we have to look forward to for the 2023 Canadian motorcycle shows? That depends on where you live. The Montreal show is back which makes sense as it was a powerhouse. There is going to be one show in Alberta which will be held in Calgary. This also makes a little bit of sense as enthusiasts will travel a couple of hours to go to a show and while the enthusiastic folks in Edmonton will lament the loss of a good show in a good facility and a much longer ride to see the bikes, a good number of riders might make the. trip. As we commented a few issues ago (see Show Stopper!), we thought the clever move, if one was to be made, would be an alternating of the locations in Alberta if there was going to be only one show.
After these two shows, the head scratching begins. Vancouver is gone from the 2023 schedule. For any of you who have walked the Vancouver show during peak hours, it is a cheek to jowl event. And this is at a location that isn’t really convenient to any more than a handful of show goers as it takes place in Abbotsford which is a good hour drive from most of urban Vancouver and an expensive ferry ride away for the many Vancouver Island attendees. It was, however, good for the show goers that drove in from outside the lower mainland to see the show.
To make it all the way to Calgary and not make the jump over the mountains to Vancouver seems odd considering BC is the third largest market for motorcycles in Canada and we’ll will make an educated guess at it being the first in terms of bikes sales per capita. Part of the absence might be due to the “snow effect” which was felt during the years Moncton had a show in the series. Unfortunately the show was hit by snowstorms several years in a row that either delayed the opening of the show or delayed the departure of the show displays. It made the corporate sponsors skittish about getting people and gear in and out. The “snow effect” has also been felt out west when storms hit the Rockies. But that is what happens when shows are slated for January and February.
The third stop on the tour of the 2023 Canadian motorcycle shows is in Toronto. The cynical might think it is because the show displays have to pass through on their way from Calgary to Montreal. It might be time to combine the various shows in Toronto back into one bigger show. It makes sense but this is the corporate show in the corporate city with most of the manufacturers’ offices in the region. It would be tough to surrender that to another entity.
There will be disappointed riders based on this schedule but there were obviously internal reasons why the cities that made the cut were chosen. We might have gone with Vancouver, Calgary and Montreal if three stops was going to be the max. But it is good to see that shows make an attempt at recovery after a long wait. PSS, show managers, say that bigger plans are in store for 2024.
The schedule for the three 2023 Canadian motorcycles shows is:
Calgary: February 3 – 5, 2023 at BMO Centre, Stampede Park
Toronto: February 17 – 19, 2023 at Enercare Centre, Exhibition Place
Montreal: February 24 – 26, 2023 at Palais des congres de Montreal
The website for the shows is:
https://www.motorcycleshows.ca
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