St. John’s gets official go-ahead for the 2025 Canada Games
City has long been the presumptive host of the national athletic event; on Thursday it became official
It couldn’t really be described as a revelation, but more of a reiteration.
St. John’s will host the 2025 Canada Summer Games.
The official announcement that St. John’s will be the site of the ’25 Games was made Thursday at the Newfoundland and Labrador Sports Centre, with attendance from representatives of the City of St. John’s, the provincial and federal governments, along with officials of the Canada Games Council, who participated by video.
It was that latter group that had to give the St. John’s bid final, formal approval, although the Newfoundland and Labrador capital has been the presumptive host since 2019, when it announced it would bid for the games (no other community in the province did so), That announcement was followed up a few months later by a Confederation Building rally to launch the bid process, which involved detailing plans for competition facilities, an athletes’ village (which will be at Memorial University) and non-sports venues, as well as the finalization of a budget and marketing/communication strategies.
In fact, the lead-up to Thursday’s announcement can actually be traced back to 2015, when the City of St. John’s revealed its 10-year plan and said the cost of hosting the Summer Games was something to consider in that process.
At the time, the city was thinking about the 2021 Summer Games — that was the original year specified as Newfoundland and Labrador’s turn in the Canada Games host rotation. But later in 2015, the province announced it would require additional time to get ready for its next opportunity to host the Games and revealed it had switched places with Ontario in the provincial/territorial rotation.
Last year, at the bid process kick-off, St. John’s Mayor Danny Breen suggested $30 million in new and/or improved infrastructure would be needed to properly host the Games, with the bulk of that money expected to come from Ottawa; federal government support for the construction or revitalization of facilities required for Canada Games has always been part of the agreements to host the events. For example, Ottawa supplied $29 million in funds for the next Canada Summer Games in the Niagara region of Ontario, money that will be used to construct two new sports venues and improvements to a number of other existing structures.
At the 2020 bid launch, then-newfoundland and Labrador premier Dwight Ball said the total cost of staging the Aug 2-24, 2025 Games would be in the $45-50 million range. According to the province, that is far less than the economic benefits, which would be anywhere from $77 million to $110 million, a projection based on Sport Tourism Canada’s assessments of the impact delivered by the two most recent Canada Games.
Both Breen and Andrew Furey, Ball’s successor, were at Thursday’s announcement, as was Seamus O’regan, Newfoundland and Labrador’s representative in the federal cabinet.
“Events such as this provide the opportunity to showcase our culture, city, and worldclass hospitality to thousands of athletes, coaches, officials, guests and spectators from across Canada,” said Breen, who thanked the bid committee. led by co-chairs Kim Keating and Karl Smith, for putting “a great deal of hard work and passion into the bid process, laying the foundation for legacy projects and an economic impact that will benefit our community leading up to, during, and after the 2025 Canada Games.”
Furey also spoke with enthusiasm.
“This is truly an amazing opportunity for St. John’s, our capital city and for our province,” he said. “I look forward to being able to showcase our beautiful province on a national scale.”
This will be Newfoundland and Labrador’s third term as host of the Canada Games, which were first held in 1967 in Quebec City. St. John’s was the site of the 1977 Summer Games, while Corner Brook was home to the 1999 Winter Games.
Games are held every two years, alternating between summer and winter sports.
What were to have been the 2021 Summer Games in the Niagara region have been moved to 2022 because of the COVID-19 pandemic, while the 2023 Winter Games are slated for Prince Edward Island.