The City of North Battleford is throwing its backing behind a bid to land the 2018 Saskatchewan Winter Games.
Council voted to pass a resolution to move forward with a bid application, which needs to be in by Jan. 11. The resolution was passed at Monday’s council meeting in North Battleford.
The vote by council was unanimous. Councillor Ryan Bater recused himself from the vote due to his executive director position with Destination Battlefords, which has taken the lead in putting together a bid package.
In speaking on the bid, Director of Leisure Services Bill Samborski made the point that it was time for the city to showcase the facilities it has to offer.
“I just feel it’s time,” said Samborski.
“It’s time to showcase what we have and bring the province to us.”
Samborski also pointed to the 55-plus games coming next year and said there was an opportunity for “establishing a really core group of volunteers in this community” and attractimh a number of other events over the next eight to 10 years.
“It is time that we started to showcase what we have to offer. Instead of just trying to tell everybody what we have, it’s an opportunity to get these folks here.”
The main discussion at the meeting had to do with making sure hosting the games would be financially viable. The resolution before council Monday called for the City’s support of a bid application, and also required the City to be responsible if the Games ran a deficit.
But it was also noted only one Sask. Winter Games had run a deficit since 1972 and that was in Moose Jaw in 2010. Those games ran a $93,000 deficit and Samborski cited some of the reasons for that, including the fact that fundraising was in full swing for the new arena there.
Several other games made small surpluses: Melfort in 2006, Lloydminster in 2008, Meadow Lake in 2012 and Prince Albert in 2014.
As well, it was expected that all municipal facilities would be provided free of charge for the games.
A typical games budget is $1.2 million, of which the Sask. Games Council provides a hosting grant of $420,000. Concessions and merchandise sales would be among the revenue items that would offset the costs.
In order to mount a bid, a full-time games co-ordinator would also need to be hired by the City in 2016 to take the load off Leisure Services.
Samborski expressed confidence the City has the facilities to host the Games and noted the potential to run many events out of the CUplex. He also noted the support of Living Sky School Division with their facilities in proximity to the Civic Centre.
“The facilities as they are now, my best opinion on that, would be that they’re ready to go,” said Samborski.
As for potential bid competition from other communities, Samborski noted it is believed Lloydminster is also submitting a bid and would also use Table Mountain if they were successful. Table Mountain would also be part of North Battleford’s bid.
City Manager Jim Puffalt said that despite the loss of revenue from renting rates at City facilities, the Games would be a “huge boon to the community. We’d basically be full up for a couple of weeks.”
“It’s a great opportunity for the community, and certainly the business community, to have that number of people in the community,” said Puffalt.
He also expressed confidence about the City facilities at their disposal. “We would have the best submission,” said Puffalt.
In speaking to reporters following Monday’s meeting, Mayor Ian Hamilton called it a “very exciting opportunity for the city of North Battleford to showcase itself.”
He noted it would be a huge event with 5,000 spectators expected from outside the community and another 2,000 direct participants.
“It’s a big undertaking and it would be very exciting for us to do,” said Hamilton, who also noted that North Battleford has hosted the games before. He said the track behind North Battleford Comprehensive High School is a legacy from the summer games the city hosted.
