Sports
Richmond awarded 2020 Games
Richmond has eyes for 2020.
Rapidly gaining a reputation for being
first-rate sport hosts, the city is in celebration mode after landing the 2020
55+ BC Games.
Recognizing sport tourism as a key sector
market, the city has in recent years leveraged being a venue city for the 2010
Olympic Winter Games into successfully becoming a prominent player to stage
provincial, national and international competitions. The Richmond Sport Hosting
Incentive Grant Program is a $100,000 per year grant program developed to
provide financial support for sport event organizers to successfully bring and
host high level sports events in Richmond. The grant program has assisted over
220 events since 2010, and has significantly demonstrated support for city
council’s 2014-2018 term goal of a supportive economic development environment.
On the heels of hosting the International
Skating Union’s Junior Grand Prix of Skating event in September, and continuing
to prepare to again host the world at the CARHA Hockey World Cup in 2020, news
that Richmond will stage the BC Seniors Games for the second time in 11 years
(it also hosted the Games in 2009), has drawn considerable excitement.
“I think it’s going to be great for Richmond,”
says longtime Richmond Sports Council chair Jim Lamond, who oversaw the 2020
55+ BC Games bid along with Coun. Bill McNulty and former Richmond Soccer
official Roger Barnes. “With people like Bill and Roger, it was a good bid, and
I’m confident the Games will be bigger and better than any we’ve ever had.”
Lamond expects upwards of 5,000 athletes from
around the province will compete in the annual, multi-sport competition
celebrating active and healthy seniors. They will compete in upwards of 29
activities, from pickle ball to track and field.
The 2020 Games will be a compact event, with
all venues within 10 kilometres of the Games Village at Minoru Park. Besides
iconic venues like the Richmond Olympic Oval and Minoru Arenas, will be the new
Minoru Centre for Active Living.
In 2017, an economic impact study found that
the 55+ BC Games provide an impact of over $3.3 million to the host community.
In addition, host communities will benefit from the development of capacity to
host large multi-sport events through training volunteers, and improve
infrastructure through the Games Legacy program.
Lamond said Richmond is fortunate to have a
volunteer force second to none, with the likes of Donna Marsland, Stu Corrigal
and Bob Jackson leading the way. Lamond says all told nearly 2,000 volunteers
were mobilized. He anticipates a similar number to come forward in 2020.
The 2009 Games turned a profit, from which a
legacy fund of about $69,000 was established. The largest Games to date, they
attracted 3,800 athletes aged 55 or older.
In 2020, half of Richmond’s population is
expected to be over 50. McNulty says he anticipates a potential economic
spinoff from four days of activities in 2020 could generate in excess of $4
million.
Cindy Simpson, president of the BC Seniors
Games Society, says Zone 4 has a history of attracting a strong contingent to
the Games, and anticipates the pattern to continue in 2020.
Says Richmond Mayor Malcolm Brodie, “Richmond
is very excited to be welcoming the 55+ BC Games in 2020. This event will
further build on our impressive legacy for sport hosting.”
Helping to raise the profile of sports in
Richmond is nothing new for Lamond, who has been doing so for decades. But
overseeing activities like the BC Games, he says, helps “keep you going.”
Describing the recent phone call he received
from the province announcing that Richmond was awarded the Games as being “quite
an honour,” Lamond said “now we’ll start working on (the details of hosting).
We’ve got more or less a year to get it done, but I’m sure these Games will be
something Richmond will be proud of.”