When it comes to sports tourism, Sault Ste. Marie continues to prove it’s got game—and plenty of it in recent months.
Already a past host to national curling events, in February the city confirmed it had secured the 2014 Ontario Scotties, the women’s provincial curling championships.
In March, the city welcomed the Under 16 Provincial Championships, which featured alpine ski races over three days at Searchmont Resort.
And, at the end of April, hockey players from across the country will descend on the Sault to participate in the week-long Telus Cup, the national midget hockey championship.
Aiming to attract events at a provincial level and higher, Tourism Sault Ste. Marie often begins the courtship two to three years in advance.
“We’re always working years into the future, so it’s just a constant process of identifying opportunities, matching them against the facilities we have here in Sault Ste. Marie, and really determining what is the best fit to what we can make a bid on,” said Ian McMillan, Tourism Sault Ste. Marie’s executive director.
A database developed by the group several years ago keeps track of facilities and their amenities, as well as available volunteer organizations, and helps determine what events would work, McMillan said.
The “crown jewel” in its inventory is the Essar Centre, the home arena of the Soo Greyhounds, which doubles as a convention centre and was built with contributions from Tourism Sault Ste. Marie.
Last year, the city completed renovations on the West End Community Centre, which boasts a twin indoor artificial soccer facility—the only one of its kind in Northern Ontario—which is able to host soccer and baseball events.
McMillan said the benefit to having a dedicated cadre of volunteers can’t be overstated.
“The key thing for any of this is having a local champion willing to work with us,” he said. “Once we make the bid, and if we’re successful, then some organization locally is going to be charged with the coordination and organization of that event, which is a big undertaking and generally that’s a volunteer- ased effort, so we really depend on the volunteers here in Sault Ste. Marie.”
Local hoteliers have done their part, too. Over the last two years, close to $35 million has been invested into local accommodations, either through new builds or upgrades, McMillan said. Data shows that sports events do bring spinoff benefits to the city.
According to figures released by the Canadian Sport Tourism Alliance, the weeklong world cup tournament presented by the Canadian Adult Recreational Hockey Association last March—an international event that brought 2,300 visitors to the city—generated $13.3 million in spinoff dollars to the city.
The Canadian Bushplane Heritage Centre logged increased visits during the tournament, while the Agawa Canyon Train Tour ran a special Wednesday train to carry a few hundred passengers to the canyon.
“So, for them, there was a direct result, not just from having people here playing hockey and staying overnight, but going out and doing other things in the community,” McMillan said.
The city will continue to advance sports tourism as part of its economic development agenda—Tourism Sault Ste. Marie’s strategic plan, which extends to 2014, outlines it as a top priority, McMillan said. Two full-time staff members are dedicated to securing sports tourism and conventions and conferences. It’s hard to assess if people are returning because of a previous stay or on a recommendation, McMillan said. But successful events do help elevate the city’s reputation as a high-calibre event host.
“In the eyes of other event planners, they have a comfort level that we have a good, strong track record of hosting successful events when we do bid on a particular event down the road, and it bodes well for us to try and get new ones.”
