Canada Games decision to be live streamed at PAC
The waiting is the hardest part. After almost two years of effort, Niagara’s bid committee will learn Thursday if the Canada Summer Games will be headed here in 2021, when the Canada Games Council announces its decision in downtown Toronto at a lunchtime press conference.
Three other Ontario regions — Ottawa, Sudbury and KitchenerWaterloo-Cambridge — have also submitted bids to host the Games.
“We haven’t heard a word — there have been no rumours from the Canada Games Council, which is a good thing,” said Doug Hamilton, the chairman of Niagara’s bid committee who will lead the local contingent to Toronto for the announcement. “We don’t have any insight as to what the decision will be.
“With respect from the local community, all the feedback we received was positive. There is always a little bit of hindsight and some second-guessing over things you could have done better, but everybody is pleased with the way the bid and the site visit came together.”
Niagara’s committee was led by Hamilton, Matt Hill, the bid’s director of sport and venues, and Bram Cotton of Niagara Sports Commission. It included six different committees dealing with such things as marketing and communications, operations and revenue generation.
Combined they spent thousands of hours in planning the bid, which culminated in a 200-page comprehensive proposal that was submitted Jan. 30, and a daylong visit by the Canada Games bid evaluation committee to Niagara on March 1.
“Part of the difficulty for us is we don’t see anybody else’s bid,” Hamilton said. “We don’t know a lot about what the other communities have done.”
Niagara’s bid committee has made arrangements for a public viewing party at FirstOntario Performing Arts Centre in St. Catharines. The doors will open at 11 a.m. Thursday. The live stream is scheduled to begin at 11:25 a.m.
A successful bid would bring about 5,600 young athletes and their coaches from across Canada to Niagara in the summer of 2021. The athletes would compete in 17 events over 18 days and attract between 20,000 to 30,000 visitors to the area.
Familiar names from past Games include Sidney Crosby, Catriona Le May Doan, Steve Nash, Eugenie Bouchard, Russell Martin and Niagara’s Mike Strange.
The bid committee estimates the Games could generate more than $200 million in economic benefits.
The provincial, federal and regional levels of government have pledged more than $30 million combined if Niagara’s bid is successful. Additional funding from the Canada Games Council also flows to the host community, and there is a robust sponsorship program ready to be activated. The sponsorship program would generate an estimated $6 million, including $2 million cash and $4 million in value-in-kind reciprocation.