Winter Games as coming-out party?
March has barely arrived, along with the promise of spring, but Valerie Sluth is already looking forward to next February.
Sluth is the board chair of the 2022 Saskatchewan Winter Games, which are to be held in and around Regina from Feb. 20-26.
“It's refreshing to think ahead to a time when hopefully, by next February, we can be outside and we can be together, whether we're competing in a sport or volunteering or just socializing around such a positive environment,” says Sluth, the founder and CEO of Praxis Consulting.
“Whether it plays out as it would have PRE-COVID is another question, I'm not sure. But certainly we're working with the anticipation that it will.”
But if it doesn't, all necessary measures and precautions will be taken to ensure that the 18-sport event — the 50th-anniversary provincial Games — proceeds according to a normal schedule.
“I guess one of the questions is “what is normal?' ” Sluth says.
“The intent is, yes, we're proceeding such that we will have a usual Games experience for all of the athletes and volunteers involved, but we are working very closely with the provincial government's Business Response Team as well as the Saskatchewan Health Authority to ensure that we're implementing protocols that will mitigate any risk for any of the participants.”
However, those implementations would have an accompanying, unspecified cost.
“It's absolutely a concern,” Sluth says. “Our medical budget is several times higher than any other Games. While we know the Games is going to be more expensive as a result of these additional interventions or protocols that need to be put in place, we also know that gathering sponsorship is increasingly difficult because there are unknowns.
“Are people wanting to tie up money in an event when they're not certain how it's going to play out? There isn't that degree of certainty, so it's certainly making it more difficult for us on both ends of the income statement.
“We know it's over a million-dollar event, but we're still working on the numbers to determine how much over a million-dollar event it will be as a result of COVID. We do know that it's going to be a more expensive Games than in the past.”
It will also be an expansive Games, when you consider the numbers. Organizers are expecting 1,500 athletes — most of whom will be between of 11 and 17 — along with 400 coaches and managers, 200 officials, about 1,400 volunteers, and more than 5,000 spectators.
“We probably have over 100 volunteers already who are involved in the organization of the Games and I will tell you that not one of those meetings has been held in person,” Sluth says.
“Every meeting that we've held so far to organize this Games has been done virtually. A remarkable amount of work has been getting done.”
The first Saskatchewan Winter Games was held in Moose Jaw in 1972. Typically, the winter and summer Games alternate every two years, but COVID threw a snag into those plans.
The 2020 Saskatchewan Summer Games, earmarked for Lloydminster, were postponed until July of this year — only to have COVID necessitate the cancellation of that event as well. The Border City will now have the first right of refusal to play host to the 2024 Summer Games.
Meanwhile, organizers of the 2022 Winter Games are forging ahead.
“We actually went to Iceville on (Feb. 20) and had a skating party for the organizing volunteers,” says Sluth, referencing a visit to the outdoor skating rink at Mosaic Stadium.
“There are husband-and-wife duos on the team that I didn't realize were married. Two of them showed up in the same car and I thought, `Isn't that nice? They carpooled.' It turns out that they were married.”
The Saskatchewan Games Council has traditionally been married to the concept of holding the summer and winter events in smaller centres, with community development in mind. A notable exception has been made for 2022, with the 50-year milestone and the desire to create “a little bit more of a splashy event,” as Sluth puts it.
“The other thing I would add to this is that it's smack-dab adjacent to the launch of the Wascana Winter Festival, which is being planned for February of next year,” she concludes.
“I think it's a big COVID coming-out party that will happen in February when everybody is ready to get out.”