SportHost Victoria – Hosting Venues and Facilities for Local and International Sporting Events

Quarterly Newsletter

Spring 2007 Edition

As this is the first newsletter published by the Greater Victoria Sport Tourism Partnership doing business as SportHost Victoria it is appropriate to provide some background as to who we are.

SportHost Victoria, the Greater Victoria Sport Tourism Partnership, is a collection of key sport and tourism industry leaders located (or with offices) in the Greater Victoria area. After the 1994 Commonwealth Games, the SportHost Victoria concept evolved as the sport community, the travel industry, and recreation facility operators met to discuss the need for an all-encompassing entity to represent Victoria as a Sport tourism destination. The goal was to create a Greater Victoria organization that could work towards increasing the quality and quantity of sporting events and activities hosted by Victoria.

The objective of SportHost Victoria is to position Victoria solidly in the national and international sport tourism market as an optimal environment for hosting first class events. The services provided by SportHost Victoria assists promoters and sport organizations in accessing facilities, funding, accommodations, marketing, sponsorship, media relations and bid support. Our goal is to be a North American leader in fostering partnerships to attract sports related events to enhance the economy and quality of life in Greater Victoria.

Please visit us at www.sporthostvictoria.com

Sport Tourism means business. We know that a more than $53 million economic benefit will result for businesses in Victoria from these and the other sports related events that have been attracted to Victoria:

March 27, 2007, U20 Soccer, Canada vs. Scotland
April 6-9, 2007, Bear Mountain Curling Classic (Ultima World Curling)
April 7 & 8, 2007, Gordon Head Invitational Soccer Tournament (160 teams)
April 22-28,2007, Canadian Syncro Swim Championships
April 29, 2007, Times Colonist 10K (10,000 plus runners 7 walkers)
May 2-6, 2007, Victoria Open Tennis Championships
May 19-20, 2007, Western Canadian Highland Games
May 26, 2007, Victoria International Half Iron Triathlon
June 9, 2007, Victoria International Track & Field Classic
June 12 – 17, 2007, Times Colonist Open Golf Championship
June 17 -26, 2007, Canadian National Women’s Softball Team Training Camp
July 1, 2007, Hudson Bay Companies Canada Day 10K
July 1- 22, 2007, U20 World Cup Soccer
July 26 – 29, 2007, UCI BMX World Championships
July, 2007, Canadian Masters Open Rowing Championships
August 23 – 26, 2007, LeViathon, (A 4 stage relay covering Vancouver Island)
October 7, 2007, Royal Victoria Marathon (10,000 runners from around the world)

2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games

Wanting to respond to a very negative report by a local media representative to express my disappointment in his editorial comment concerning the countdown to the 2010 Winter Olympic Games and Victoria’s ability to benefit from the Games I was reminded of the strategy that has been developed to ensure benefits come to Victoria as we get closer to February 2010.

I must admit, I was quite surprised by how negative reports are and how misinformed the media seems to be as to what our community has achieved as a result of the Games being hosted in B.C. Especially since we often have spoken to the media about the various events that have and will take place in Victoria as a result of the support programs resulting from the 2010 Games.

In fact, Victoria’s benefits started well before even the June 11, 2003 announcement of the appointment of a Chair for Victoria’s 2010 Community Committee that has evolved to become Victoria’s Spirit of BC Committee. Throughout the bid phase for the Games various Victoria agencies were contracted to develop what have become important pre games legacies. Athlete development equipment was secured for the benefit of Victoria based athletes (PacificSport) and with the recognition of the importance of sport tourism throughout the province that will result from 2010, Victoria’s Sport Tourism Partnership was commissioned to assist in developing a “How to Guide” for the province (Tourism BC).

During the June 11th announcement we learned of details for a new 2010 Olympic Live Sites program to which communities around the province could apply to receive financial grants for upgrading facilities and equipment. The City of Victoria recently announced they successfully applied and received over $300,000 from this program to purchase transportable event seating and Sport Hall of Fame displays. Oak Bay and Saanich have both announced that they also have received grants for this program. I haven’t researched what the total for the region is but knowing the West Shore and Peninsula were also applying, it is expected that Greater Victoria will receive close to a million dollars as a result of this 2010 program.

The Committee that evolved from Victoria’s 2010 Community Committee has developed a detailed strategy to target opportunities to benefit Victoria. The focus of this strategy developed by community leaders representing our universities, college, municipalities, and community facilities including parks, arenas, and theatres, zeros in on six core initiatives involving deriving benefits for the Arts and Cultural Community, the Health & Recreation Community, the Business and Tourism Communities, from Educational initiatives, and from hosting related sporting events.

Already Victoria has received an Olympic Arts Fund grant to host last October’s inaugural Victoria International Arts Symposium.

It is no coincidence that Victoria has received more than $1.5 Million in grants to host Olympic related events which have introduced and will continue to introduce IOC members from around the world to Victoria. Our strategy includes inviting these important representatives of their countries back to Victoria for training camps prior to the opening of the Olympic Village in Vancouver. These 2010 related grants include support for the 2005 World Curling Championships, the Skate Canada International, and the upcoming World Cup Soccer and the World BMX Cycling Championships. As you may have heard the support received from the province to assist in hosting the World Curling Championships resulted in Victoria’s achieving a $20.4 Million economic impact benefit. Victoria because of its coaching expertise has held a number of international curling training camps (most recently Japan and Korea have come to Victoria for training).

International travel writers covering the development of 2010 venues in Vancouver have been invited to Victoria by Tourism Victoria resulting in articles and stories being written about Victoria and circulated around the world. Important benefits and part of our strategy.

Local citizens have enjoyed free community events during this Spirit of BC Week as a result in part to grants received from 2010 Legacies Now ( Free swim day at the Crystal Pool and Skates at the Pearkes and Panaorama arenas).

The Committee’s strategy includes as much as possible letting Victoria’s business community know about the business opportunities that have and will result because of the 2010 Games. In March 2005 the Business of Sport Conference was held in Victoria and we invited VANOC senior management (John Furlong & David Cobb) to meet with our business community which they did.

There are some amazing Victoria success stories out there. and not being a reporter I don’t feel I can do them justice but some winners such as Cannon Johnston Design of Victoria won a multi – million dollar contract to develop the 2010 Richmond Speed Skating Oval; Millennia Research of Victoria won a major contract to provide archaeological consulting services in Whistler; and there is a great story about a local company, Synachor Management Inc. that pulled off an incredible “Official Sponsorship” deal that means millions of dollars for the 2010 organizing committee, Canadian athletes, the Hudson’s Bay Company and obviously Victoria benefits as Synachor is headquartered here. I’m sure there will be more but these are a few of the good news stories.

I hope this information will be helpful to the media in the future so that they can better inform your audiences as to the impact the 2010 Winter Olympic Games is having on our community.