Victoria Royals back out of Memorial Cup bidding race, leaving it down to the Red Deer Rebels and Vancouver Giants

It is now a two-horse race between the Vancouver Giants and Red Deer Rebels to host the 2016 MasterCard Memorial Cup as the Victoria Royals have backed out.

It is understandable why the Royals had a change of mind. They seemed to be the long-shot club of the three because their future 2015-16 roster doesn’t appear to be as enticing as the Rebels or Giants. In addition, Vancouver’s barn holds twice as many people as theirs does. The bidding exit more than likely saved Victoria’s business staff from some unnecessary work and softened the blow of disappointment for their fan base.

Royals GM Cam Hope doesn’t view it as backing out with the process not that far along. He seemed to indicate that Victoria decided to take a pass because the Rebels have the edge on them in the mid-market category and the Giants have the advantage of being a big-market club.

“I don’t think it was really backing out, it was more a situation where the process works where you have to put your name in if you have interest before you really know who else is in the bidding,” Hope told Victoria play-by-play announcer Marlon Martens. “With Red Deer having bid the last couple of times around and not having a Memorial Cup there since 1974, a mid-market team like us, they have a strong bid and Vancouver of course has shown what they can do. I think this time around it was better to fold them than hold them.”

It seems to be a bit of a toss-up between Vancouver and Red Deer going into the league vote on Oct. 8. The Giants blew the tourney out of the water in 2007 when they hosted it, have a much bigger arena and a cornerstone player in top 2013 bantam pick Tyler Benson to build a team around for next year. The Rebels, meanwhile, have the makings of a powerhouse club with the likes of Carolina Hurricanes first-rounder Haydn Fleury, Colorado Avalanche first-rounder Conner Bleackley and skilled 17-year-old Adam Musil leading the way.

On a side note, the Brandon Wheat Kings appear to be the favourite to win the Ed Chynoweth Cup in 2016 at this point. They have a strong foundation of young talent such as New Jersey Devils first-rounder John Quenneville, Florida Panthers second-rounder Jayce Hawryluk, top 2013 bantam picks Nolan Patrick and Kale Clague and 2015 NHL draft prospect Ryan Pilon. It seems the 2010 hosts didn’t put in a bid because they knew the CHL wouldn’t let them put on the tourney twice in seven years.

Seeing only two of 22 WHL clubs take a shot at hosting the Memorial Cup might seem low, but there are good reasons behind why so many teams didn’t put their names in the hat. There’s an unwritten rule that says the prestigious tournament must be played in Canada because of financial and political reasons. Therefore, the Dub’s five U.S. clubs can’t host it regardless of how dominant they are. In addition, many of the league’s small-market teams like the Swift Current Broncos, Prince Albert Raiders, Kootenay Ice and Lethbridge Hurricanes simply don’t have big enough fan bases to compete with the big-market organizations. On the flip side of that, two of league’s big-market clubs, the Calgary Hitmen and Edmonton Oil Kings, can’t bid because they can’t guarantee they’ll have access to their rinks in May as they share them with their city’s respective NHL team. These three reasons alone eliminate at least half of the league from competing in the bid.

The Saskatoon Blades precedent in 2013 is worth noting as a possible reason why some teams didn’t put in a bid. Not only were the Bridge City Boys about $1 million off what they expected to make, but the tourney also set them up for a long rebuild because they simply didn’t have enough talent to take a run at it with what they had at the start of the 2012-13 season. Then-Blades GM-head coach Lorne Molleken ended up trading several young prospects and three first-round picks (One ended up being the No. 1 pick of the 2014 bantam draft) in an effort to better his roster.

Kelly Friesen is a Buzzing the Net columnist for Yahoo! Sports. Follow him on Twitter @KellyFriesen (Above image credit to Flickr)