Games team strove for personal touch
Organizers confident of success before Commonwealth 2022 bid was scuttled
If you want to win the right to hold the Friendly Games, it’s the personal touch that counts.
That’s what Edmonton officials learned last year as they attempted to bring the Commonwealth Games back to the city for the first time since 1978.
They’re confident this approach gave Edmonton a good shot at hosting in 2022 before sagging provincial finances scuttled the proposal.
Bid committee chair and former Edmonton Airports head Reg Milley recalls talking about the city’s plans with Papua New Guinea delegate Sir John Dawanincura.
“He leans forward to me and says ‘How far is Edmonton from Canmore? … My daughter and sonin-law live in Canmore,’ ” Milley says.
“I said, ‘I will personally take you to Canmore to see them.’ It’s that kind of personal interaction that was important.”
The Games draw participants from 71 countries and territories containing one-third of the world’s population.
The nations involved range from massive India to tiny Niue with 1,500 residents.
Edmonton had about 18 months to bring together a team, devise a strategy and see it through after receiving provincial backing for a last-minute bid in March 2014.
The two main tasks were preparing the bid book — hundreds of pages outlining how, where and when the Games would be held — and scoring more delegate votes than their sole rivals in Durban, South Africa.
Sometimes that hearts-and-minds campaign was on a micro scale, as bid team executive director Aileen Giesbrecht discovered.
“The two voting delegates from Gibraltar, I used to work in one of the pubs in Gibraltar they kind of grew up in.”
Giesbrecht, the Clipper bar’s onetime waitress, loves the Commonwealth Games.
“It’s accessible and there’s no quota on the athletes … You have athletes from the Falkland Islands, you have athletes from Norfolk Island. You don’t have that in the Olympic Games.”
City representatives visited more than half-a-dozen nations over roughly six months to find out how the Games are run, learn what participants want and present Edmonton’s ideas.
They usually travelled to international sports competitions and meetings rather than individual countries so they could build relationships with multiple people over several days, city manager and committee vice-chair Simon Farbrother says.
A team featuring Mayor Don Iveson attended the 2014 Games in Glasgow, waving the stylized “E” Edmonton logo and observing such details as how they organized 27,000 meals a day for participants.
The city’s promotional material included about 400 pairs of plaid boxer shorts with “Edmonton 2022” printed on the waistband for Team Canada athletes and officials.
There were also trips to Thailand, Mexico, China, the Turks and Caicos Islands, Bermuda and Australia, often at activities linked to the Olympics, in which most Commonwealth Games delegates are also involved.
“When you’re going out to look for votes, it’s important to build connections. It can be economics, sports or personal,” Farbrother says.
He didn’t envision the Games as a flash-in-the-pan that would erupt in Edmonton for a couple of weeks and then disappear.
Instead, he saw them as a catalyst for years of competitions, training for Commonwealth athletes, international business links and other activities.
As the city’s draft bid book outlines in capital letters, the Edmonton group intended to produce something EXTRAORDINARY.
That included festivals, athlete development, and top-notch training and competition venues, according to a copy of the book obtained through a Freedom of Information request.
“Adrenalin will rush on the field, in the water and in the stands. Coaches, parents and friends look on with hope and pride,” the document gushes.
“Tears of joy will be shared as athletes realize their dreams.”
Many small countries wanted a chance to be competitive instead of watching Canadians, Australians and Britons dominate the medals again, Milley says.
The Edmonton team worked on ways to help that happen, such as mentoring, distance learning and coaching, and athlete scholarships.
“We wanted to develop a program to make the event sustainable so those countries that have never won can get to the podium.”
The committee aimed for a compact Games relying on public transit.
As 2014 wore on, committee members felt Edmonton was winning strong support for its competence and experience.
Durban’s main selling point was that the Games have never been held in Africa.
“It was the Africa challenge,” Giesbrecht says. “Durban’s videos, 100 per cent that was their position — it’s our turn.”
But as the price of oil dropped toward the end of the year, Milley could see the writing was on the wall.
The federal government derailed an earlier Canadian bid when it refused funding in 2012.
In February, Iveson announced Edmonton was out of the hunt for the 2022 Games because the province could no longer afford to take part.
“I kind of knew it was going to come,” says Milley, who thinks it was the right move.
“But getting the final call … that was probably the lowest day in a long time.” All is not lost, however. Commonwealth Games Canada gave the city first crack at seeking to host in 2026.
Farbrother likes Edmonton’s chances if it decides next year to go ahead.
“We have a really good understanding of what we need to do … now we get to lay that out again.”