Mexico quits as FINA host
Windsor plans unchanged
News that Guadalajara, Mexico, pulled out of hosting the 2017 FINA World Championships does not concern Mayor Drew Dilkens.
Guadalajara recently backed out of the major aquatics event, calling the $ 100- million price tag too high. The announcement came after the Mexican government said it would no longer help fund the competition, given falling oil prices are hurting that country’s budget.
Windsor will host a smaller FINA competition Dec. 7-11, 2016 — the FINA 25- metre World Swimming Championships, which will cost $ 11.2 million.
Windsor’s share is budgeted at $ 3 million, though that is based on expected federal and provincial funding, as well as private sponsorship. Also, the falling Canadian dollar means the Windsor competition may end up costing more, though organizers say most vendors are Canadian so the impact should be minimal.
“This isn’t even an applesto- oranges comparison because apples and oranges are roughly the same size,” Dilkens said Tuesday. “This is an apples- to- watermelons comparison.”
Dilkens said the 15- day multi-sport competition that had been scheduled for Guadalajara — including swimming, open-water swimming, high diving, synchronized swimming and water polo — is a much bigger, costlier affair.
“We’re looking forward to our event,” said Dilkens, who is optimistic that senior levels of government as well as some corporations will kick in. “We’re being prudent and working very diligently on securing the funding we need from other levels of government.
“It’s going to be a good event.”
Former city councillor Alan Halberstadt, who voted against hosting the FINA 25-metre swimming championships in Windsor because he felt the risk was too great, thinks the Guadalajara situation shows the uncertainty of such events.
Though Halberstadt acknowledges that the Guadalajara competition is a much larger commitment, he feels the principle remains.
“It is a big risk,” Halberstadt said. “Certainly the rising American dollar, which nobody could have foreseen, is part of the risk. We have to pay some people in American dollars.
“To take a risk like that for an event that only lasts four or five days and costs millions of dollars, it doesn’t seem to be a good decision.”
The majority of council, however, disagreed with Halberstadt at the time.
Councillors voted for an international meet they believed will help put Windsor on the map and boost the local economy, while providing a world- class event for area residents.
As far as hosting the bigger event that Guadalajara backed out of — having to pay a $ 5- million penalty, on top of the $9.5 million the Mexican city had already spent getting ready — Dilkens won’t put his hand up for Windsor.
First of all, Dilkens said, hosting openwater swimming and highdiving — akin to cliff diving — would present major problems locally. Then there are the logistics of accommodating something so massive.
“We couldn’t even think about hosting that one, it’s so far off the mark for us,” Dilkens said. “We’re already stretched for hotel rooms for the FINA event we’re hosting, which is just a fraction of the size.”
Guadalajara resigned as host despite that it held the 2011 Pan American Games and already had such facilities as the indoor Scotiabank Aquatics Center, which would lessen construction costs for the FINA meet.
FINA director Julio Maglione has been quoted as saying that the news from Guadalajara “is very painful for us.” FINA must now scramble to find a host to step up at the last minute. The next FINA World Championships are scheduled for this summer in Kazan, Russia.
“WE’RE BEING PRUDENT AND WORKING VERY DILIGENTLY ON SECURING THE FUNDING WE NEED FROM OTHER LEVELS OF GOVERNMENT. IT’S GOING TO BE A GOOD EVENT.”
DREW DILKENS