Niagara indoor opening ceremonies planned
While Hamilton was part of a team of four Niagara representatives during the trip primarily to watch the opening ceremonies on July 28, he said a second team of two Niagara games representatives — Tom Arkell, Brock University’s special adviser to the vice-president, and David Veres, Niagara College’s soon-to-retire associate vice-president of academic and learner services — also participated in an “observer program” for communities hosting the next two Games.
“It’s called a transfer-of-knowledge program,” Hamilton said. “They spend four or five days doing seminars, venue tours, village tours and that kind of stuff so they can better inform the next two Games.”
Hamilton said there was a large contingent of representatives from Red Deer, which will host the 2019 Canada Summer Games, participating in the observer program. And when the Games take place in Alberta, he said it will be Niagara’s turn to send a large group of representatives.
Hamilton said his visit to Winnipeg also strengthened his resolve that some changes Niagara is planning for the local events won’t hinder its success.
For instance, he said Niagara is planning to hold its opening ceremonies at Meridian Centre, although most communities use outdoor stadiums for those events.
Winnipeg, however, had its opening ceremony in the city’s hockey arena, “and they did a really good job.”
“It gave us encouragement that an opening ceremony can work well in an indoor facility,” Hamilton said.
There is, however, one major difference between Meridian Centre and Winnipeg’s arena.
“Their arena has 15,000 seats. We’re going to be doing it in an arena with 6,000 seats,” he said.
Nevertheless, Hamilton remains confident the local arena will be large enough to accommodate crowds by using floor space as well as the seating.
Niagara’s next steps towards hosting the Games include hiring a chief executive officer for the host society. The board of directors is set to issue a request for proposals looking for a firm to recruit the organization’s new boss by this fall.