World famous hockey podcasters draw huge crowd in downtown London

Spittin' Chiclets comes to London World famous podcasters, Spittin' Chiclets brought an annual tournament to Canada. CTV London's Brent Lale reports.

The most popular hockey podcasters on the planet brought some major attention to the Forest City this weekend with the annual Chiclets Cup.

The street hockey tournament, put on by the creators of the 'Spittin Chiclets' podcast had hundreds of people gathered around the rink on Dufferin Avenue to watch the Big Deal Selects play Saturday in the semifinals.

“Myself, Paul Bissonnette and Rear Admiral, we started a pod (podcast) almost eight years ago now, just talking hockey and just having fun with the game,” said Ryan Whitney, a former NHL player who played 481 games with Pittsburgh, Anaheim and Edmonton.

“We've been lucky enough to meet so many different people throughout our playing careers and use the podcast interviewing different guys.”

The Chiclets Cup started in Detroit and has gone to Las Vegas and Buffalo, but this is the first time coming to Canada.

They worked with London promoter Brad Jones, the man behind HockeyFest, who has the street hockey rinks.

“We got over 800 guys here staying in hotels, going to restaurants and doing what they love to do,” said Whitney.

Jones was excited to have this in his hometown and there was a buzz downtown with the ‘Spittin Chiclets’ podcasters in the city.

“These guys are big celebrities,” said Jones.

“Everywhere they go, whether it's in Tim Hortons or walking out of the hotel, people want their autographs.”

The tournament was not just about the action on the street. It was a days-long party.

“We had 1,000 people in a tent behind Joe Kools and 1,300 people at Centennial Hall on Thursday night,” said Jones.

“Cheryl Finn and the team at Tourism London bought into it right away six months ago when I called them. I told them ‘you get the Memorial Cup, you get the Figure Skating Championships, but, not too far behind is the millions of people that follow these guys’. They know about London, Ontario because of the Chiclets Cup.”

The street hockey was intense.

“I’ve said for years this should be an Olympic sport,” said Terry Ryan, a former professional hockey player who stars as ‘Hitch” on the tv show Shoresy.

“I played for years for Team Canada, but when the Chiclets guys got involved, it raised the platform for ball hockey. I’ll leave it for the people of London to judge for themselves, but you saw that what happened today. Was that not intense? Afterwards, what did everybody do? Hugged each other, shook hands, that's hockey.”

While the Big Deal Selects, coached by Whitney and featuring Bissonnette and Ryan didn’t win, the fans didn’t care as they got to pose for photos with the stars post-game.