Email from K. Wells re: 55+ BC Games
Correspondence from the Greater Victoria Sport Tourism Commission inviting the community to bid on the 55+ BC Games for 2020-2022.
From: Keith Wells Sent: June-04-18 11:47 PM To: Keith Wells Subject: Games opportunity for Greater Victoria
Dear Mayors, Officers, Directors, and Managers—
My name is Keith Wells, Executive Director of the Greater Victoria Sport Tourism Commission, successor to SportHost Victoria. We have been operating for just under 6 weeks and, as you may have seen, we have already secured one significant event for the Greater Victoria area: the Canada-China Men’s Basketball Game at Save on Foods Memorial Centre, June 24. We plan to hold a strategy session in July to invite input from key stakeholders so that we can build a coherent strategy for sports tourism in Greater Victoria and work pro-actively and systematically towards success in the future.
In the meantime, a very important opportunity has crossed our desk. The BC Senior Games Society has invited our community to bid on the 55+ BC Games (formally known as the BC Seniors Games) to be held in 2020, 2021, and 2022. Communities may bid on one or all of the Games, however, only one will be awarded.
The bid deadline is June 29.
The Capital Region is in a favourable position to host the Games. It would be the first time in the event’s history that the competition would be held in the Capital Region.
4,000 registered participants from across BC would visit Greater Victoria. Past Games have generated significant economic impact on the host cities. The last economic study was completed after the 2014 Games in Langley and left more than $3,100,000.00 in the business community. On top of the economic impact, this bid is an opportunity to prove that Greater Victoria can go after larger events of this kind in a strategic and measured way. We view this as an opportunity to test our skills in bidding and executing multi-sport events for other multi-sports events such as the Invictus Games or future attempts at the North American Indigenous Games.
No one municipality in Greater Victoria that has all of the required facilities to host these Games, therefore a single bid is proposed on behalf of the region.
We have spoken to the Hotel Association of Greater Victoria and they will be reviewing the opportunity at their monthly meeting this week and will give us a yes/no decision if they feel we should pursue a September date in any of these years.
Political support is required. Formal resolutions of support for hosting the 55+ BC Games are needed prior to the deadline of June 29. We have started the ball rolling in securing necessary political support. We are seeking hospitality support and should we receive municipal support, we intend to bid. As such we propose a kick-off meeting this Friday, June 8 at 10:00 am in the PISE/94Forward boardroom at Saanich Commonwealth Place. At that time we provide information on the requirements, facilities, and letters of support required. If there is a fit for your municipality we would require partnership/letter of support by June 28th.
However, we are not re-inventing the wheel here. There has been considerable work done in past year on bids such as the Commonwealth Games and the North American Indigenous Games. I would be happy to discuss the Games bid, as would Paul Nursey from Tourism Victoria. Tourism Victoria has committed the capacity and initial financial support to submit a high-quality bid by the deadline.
We look forward to hearing from you. Please confirm who from your organization will make the kick-off meeting.
Thank you for your consideration.
Keith Wells