The teams — Vancouver Canucks and San Jose Sharks — are set. But little else. It will take perhaps a month and a half to learn other details such as date, venue and ticket distribution regarding the 2015 Kraft Hockeyville NHL pre-season game awarded to North Saanich.

Officials from the NHL, NHL Players’ Association and Kraft Hockeyville toured four rinks — Panorama Recreation Centre in North Saanich, The Q Centre and Juan de Fuca Arena in Colwood and Save-on-Foods Memorial Centre in Victoria — on a research trip Tuesday.

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“We will review all the factors and digest the information and make a decision within the next six weeks,” said Joanna Milroy, senior brand manager for Kraft Hockeyville.

“A lot of things go into the decision.”

None of the NHL or NHLPA people in town for the visit was made available to the media. Former NHL goaltender Kay Whitmore was part of the delegation. When touring the Memorial Centre during a WHL Victoria Royals practice Tuesday morning, Whitmore chatted with Royals head coach and former NHLer Dave Lowry.

Hockeyville has become a sort of Canadian cultural touchstone, with the winning community garnering an NHL exhibition game with all tickets to the game free of charge.

Panorama Rec Centre in North Saanich out-balloted Chatham-Kent, Ont., 1.1 million votes to 670,000 in the final round of 2015 Kraft Hockeyville voting, with the result announced on Hockey Night in Canada live Saturday afternoon from New York by NHL commissioner Gary Bettman.

Both finalists — Panorama and the Chatham Memorial Arena — won $100,000 in arena upgrades. But Panorama got the game.

Although the idea is quaint — hold a free NHL pre-season game in a small community rink —there is the option to go to a bigger building if the winning rink is part of a larger metro region.

That happened in 2011 when the town of Conception Bay South, N.L., won the Kraft Hockeyville balloting but decided to hold the NHL exhibition game between the Ottawa Senators and Winnipeg Jets not in its tiny community rink, but 30 kilometres away in the 6,287-seat Mile One Centre in St. John’s.

The Panorama rink could accommodate about 450 people sitting and perhaps another 550 standing for about 1,000 in total. Tuesday’s series of site visits leaves open the possibility of moving the Hockeyville game to a larger facility, including the 7,006-seat Memorial Centre downtown.

“What matters most is that we want the most amount of people to see the game,” said Jason Fletcher, the volunteer and Peninsula Minor Hockey Association coach who spearheaded the winning Panorama bid.

“We have no answers to give right now. No decisions have been made regarding date, arena or tickets. It’s all up in the air.”

Wherever the game is played in the region, North Saanich won’t be forgotten in the festivities.

“Kraft Hockeyville is more than just a game,” said Milroy.

“There are coaching clinics and alumni [former players] on hand . . . there are a ton of activities. It’s an overall great experience.”

cdheensaw@timescolonist.com

Twitter.com/tc_vicsports