The Estevan 2016 Saskatchewan Summer Games were proclaimed a financial success three days before its opening ceremony.
“It feels awesome,” said Bernie Bjorndalen, co-chair of the Friends of the Games. “I have to admit that we did probably second guess whether we could achieve all our goals. We were talking about having to slash our budget in some places and to be able to hit the milestone that we initially set out is fantastic.”
At a press conference early Friday morning set in front of the Summer Games Legacy Wall just inside the doors of the Estevan Leisure Centre, Bjorndalen and Estevan 2016 Saskatchewan Summer Games co-chair Brian Senchuk announced the competition has received a total of $3.4 million through various fundraising activities since the Games were awarded to Estevan in the fall of 2013. While not finalized, the cost to hold the Games is estimated to be $3.34 million allowing for a $60,000 benefit.
Senchuk said they decided on an initial fundraising goal of $3.2 million back in 2013 based on previous Games budgets and what legacy projects they wished to accomplish. He said that figure was then moved up to $3.6 million before being pushed down again to $3.4 million due to the downturn in the economy.
“There is a fear when you get into the unknown and so we had to come up with a plan in the event that we weren’t able to raise our funds (like) what could be cut and where it could be cut,” said Senchuk. “We did a review of the budget and came up with basically a secondary budget (with a $3.4 million fundraising goal), which we operated from and that’s what we used to project our final numbers.”
Figures distributed at the press conference state the Estevan 2016 Saskatchewan Summer Games’ revenue came through $650,000 from the Saskatchewan Games Council, $266,000 by fundraising efforts such as the recent Rockin’ The Games concert at Affinity Place and the Savour the Southeast festival, $890,000 courtesy of direct cash donations and close to $1 million from work in-kind from the business community. It was further stated that an estimated $1 million of cash injections came from outside sources into Estevan, not including the impact the Games will have on the local economy during its run.
Senchuk said the $3.4 million budget was set in stone about a year and a half before the Games, but even as the competition now unfolds they are still monitoring their budget for the Games operations to make sure they continue to fall within its scope. He said the Summer Games is being run as a non-profit subcommittee of Estevan city council and any surplus, including the $60,000 projected at this moment, will become a matter for council to decide, but the Games committee will be allowed to make recommendations of where it should flow with future upgrades to the facilities being their top priority.
Bjorndalen said the community of Estevan is directly responsible for the Games being able to reach its fundraising goal. He said the recession that has crippled southeast Saskatchewan’s economy over the past two years did not affect the business and overall community’s support of the Games, but it may have shifted the focus from cash donations to people and businesses offering to help through work in-kind.
“Not everything but a big chunk of the track was work in-kind,” said Bjorndalen. It was “lots of little things like some sprinkler systems, assembling bleachers, painting (and) a lot of things like that where we needed help to do. I mean even picking rocks our community stepped up. We had one Saturday where we had to pick rocks off the grass at the track and about 20 people showed up and we made short work out of a big project. So that’s a good example of how people in this community really stepped up for this.”
