Games delay aids construction
Canada Summer Games Park will be more than ‘Games ready’ in 2022, chairperson says
Having decided to postpone for ayear to 2022 the Canada Summer Games, the host society plans for dealing with the delay are coming into focus.
Doug Hamilton, chair of the group, said the delay will give the Games time to increase revenue through sponsorships and ticket sales.
But there is also an additional year of staffing and administrative costs. The host society will have to pay another year of rent for its headquarters.
“We are still working on our plan for what the Games will look like, and our budget will look like one year later,” Hamilton said.
The host society made fulltime staff layoffs among the moves, which reduced the complement to 20 from more than 30.
“We are back to being two years away from the Games, and we had to adjust the staffing level.”
In mid-September, the host society voted to postpone the event after getting a green light from the Canada Games Council.
Hamilton said the host society began contemplating delaying the event in June, which wasn’t an easy decision.
“We want to protect the health and safety of the participants as well as the spectators,” he told Niagara Region’s corporate services committee last week.
“We also wanted to create an opportunity to host the Games as we envisioned them.
“We are concerned about hosting a Games that provides an outstanding experience for all the participants and the spectators as well.
“We want to have spectators present and do the games the way we envision them.”
The Games will occupy the same early August two-week slot on the calendar.
“Our current thinking — which the board still has to approve — is to hold it on the same timeline, in the same two weeks we would have hosted them in 2021 with a minor change.
“We are looking at opening the Games on a Saturday and ending two weeks later on a Sunday.”
Hamilton said the core group of 250 planning volunteers would stay engaged. It’s that group of volunteers who are overseeing the various sports and Games-related activities with the help of the reduced full-time staff.
“They are very much driving the bus in many different areas. The staff support still has to be present but didn’t have to be to the same degree it would have been if we didn’t have the volunteers.
“We laid off the staff, and we are going to recall them in a schedule we think is appropriate to meet the needs of the Games.”
One area the Games will benefit from the delay is in the construction of Canada Summer Games Park.
Having lost time to the pandemic and government wrangling, Canada Games Park, rising at the southeast corner of Brock University, wasn’t going to be finished in time for the Games.
The facility, which will have a twin-rink, gymnasium, and other amenities will now be able to open early for the Niagara community to use.
“We were going to have the parts we need for the Games done by August 2021. We have been referring to that date as ‘Games ready’ with the outdoor track and some of the indoor facilities ready.”
The budget for the Games, including both the operating capital budget, is $146.7 million.