SPRUCE MEADOWS CANCELS MASTERS ‘WITH HEAVY HEARTS’
Spruce Meadows has made the difficult decision to cancel its flagship event of the show-jumping season.
The Masters, which was slated for Sept. 9-13, won’t be held in 2020 because of the coronavirus pandemic, with the world-renowned equestrian facility recognizing the enormous reverberations its elimination from the calendar has on the economy of the city.
“Spruce Meadows is on stallrest right now,” Spruce Meadows senior vice-president Ian Allison said, trying his best to cut through the melancholy Tuesday at the sporting mecca just southwest of Calgary.
“The decision is made with heavy hearts and an acute awareness of the significant ripple effects.”
Spruce Meadows, by way of its insights into recent third-party economic impact studies, fully understands that by cancelling its entire schedule, including the Masters, it causes widespread economic impact.
“This is particularly true as it relates to the 560 full-time jobs, the $45 million in wages and the nearly $90 million in tourism-related economic activity that are attributed to the Spruce Meadows international show-jumping season,” Allison said. “The people in tourism and hospitality and all of those areas, including ourselves, have been tremendously impacted. It’s significant.”
Earlier this spring — again because of the world health crisis — Spruce Meadows cancelled its entire summer series, which included the National and the North American tournaments.
“Things change quickly,” Allison said. “As we arrived at the beginning of May, it become evident that it was going to become difficult — even with some restrictions getting loosened up in the weeks and months ahead — to put on the Masters given when its dates fall immediately after the Labour Day long weekend and all things in place with respect to events and crowds and transportation and border controls … the list goes on and on.”
Indeed, arrangements have to be made by dates that are fast approaching.
Then there’s meeting the needs of the international flavour of the event that makes the Masters what it is.
But with the future at the whim of the COVID-19 catastrophe, officials at Spruce Meadows feel there’s too much uncertainty at hand to put on the usual worldclass show.
“Let’s say there’s 20 nations represented at the Masters — from Europe, South America, Central America and perhaps the Middle East and Australia and New Zealand,” Allison said. “Anybody coming into the country, as it stands now, would have to do a two-week isolation. So that’s a pretty unrealistic expectation.”
Plus, the Masters hosts feel as if they owe it to the show-jumping world to give as much advanced notice as possible.
“There are a lot of things that have to be committed to, whether it’s television schedules or charter aircrafts or your entertainers …” Allison said. “We’ve faced 9/11, floods, fires, hoof-and-mouth disease and media strikes … everything you can imagine. This is really everything wrapped into one — yet it’s so invisible unless it directly impacts you.”
Spruce Meadows had hoped to pull off its best Masters yet, to help celebrate 45 years of being in the show-jumping business.
Highlights were to include the world’s best horses and riders competing at the biggest tournament in show-jumping, wonderful shopping, exhibits and entertainment programs. These included the RCMP Musical Ride, Fire Fit, the world blacksmith championships, Friday’s “Evening of the Horse,” military colour and the wonderful voices of The Tenors, among other attractions.
Instead, fans this spring and summer will have to settle for saddling up for online adventures of Spruce Meadows.
There’s a selection of stories on many of its media and social platforms on the website, TELUS Name the Foal will continue virtually, and the facility’s team is working to produce a virtual Masters on its site and through social media.
“It is a beautiful day here at Spruce Meadows,” Allison said. “It is comforting that it will be again tomorrow, the day after and whenever we can all return. However, until further notice, the Spruce Meadows grounds will remain closed to the public.”
That means the annual head count of nearly 500,000 fans won’t be making their way to the summer series and the Masters this year.
“During these times of enormous health and economic challenges caused by the pandemic, we all strive to remain positive, engaged and be productive members of our community,” added Allison. “Spruce Meadows has always been a place of inclusion, caring and safety. In these times of global uncertainty, the health and well-being of our sponsors and their employees (many of whom have been with us for our entire history), our competitors, officials, volunteers, fans, the media, Spruce Meadows’ staff and the community at large continues to be our top priority.
“We can’t wait to come back. We’ve decided that we’re going to take a mulligan and next year come back as best we can to celebrate our 45th anniversary of sport.”