The Ontario Summer Games, to be held August 10-13, are supposed to put Sudbury back on the map of hosting major sporting events.
But what will happen once the games are over and the thousands of people have gone home?
For Rob St. Marseille, the Games are only the beginning for boosting the profile of mountain biking in the province. The president of the Walden Mountain Biking Club looks through the bush and rocky mountain bike trails in Naughton to the day when the club will become a destination on the Ontario Cup circuit.
One Ontario Cup race could bring upwards of 500 riders and their entourage to the region. And when they do, they'll find a challenging course that will test their fitness and technical riding skills, St. Marseille says.
"We have a course that will represent what riding is like up here in the North."
That unique northern experience features into the City of Greater Sudbury's approach to sport tourism marketing which is being developed as a piece of the overall community tourism strategy.
Kristina Lang, a tourism marketing officer for the city, lists the lakes, a thriving artistic community, major destination attractions and natural abundance as key features of the area.
"All these things are attractive to those who want to stay a day longer. I think it's an all-around experience," she says.
In 2009, Sudbury Tourism and its partners helped bring over 30 different sporting events to the city. That includes over 45, 000 participants and athletes, utilizing roughly 12,000 room nights in Greater Sudbury hotels, says Lang, Sudbury will be a sports tourism destination in 2011 when it will host provincial high school wrestling and track and field meets, the Little NHL tournament, the Swim Ontario Division I team championships, and les Jeux de la Francophonie.
Still, at this point, the city can only attract so many events based on the number of available rooms.
With roughly 1,400 rooms, it might be too much for the city to host a sporting event like the Canadian or even Ontario firefighter games because of the number of hotel rooms, says Lang.
Even the local convention and meeting spaces may not be up to the same level as rooms in the Golden Horseshoe area of southern Ontario, Lang says.
"But Sudbury definitely has the opportunity to market itself to some of the sporting clubs and some that may be regionally attractive, (events) around water, running, those sorts of things."
Sports are not the main thrust of tourism, says Lang. "Coordinated efforts in marketing are generally targeted to specific programs."
Currently the base of the city's marketing includes the annual Sudbury Tourism Visitor Guide, the Visitor Information Centres that are located in the city proper, general leisure marketing in various external publications, advertising in host leisure markets, and various test programs, Lang adds.
In order to market a city as a sports tourist destination, proper facilities and sports infrastructure are needed, says Ann Pegoraro, director of sports administration at Laurentian University.
The city has invested in upgrading its facilities, including the multi-million dollar rebuild of the Laurentian Community Track. The two-phase renovation is a partnership between Laurentian, four local school boards, and the Ontario government.
"We need a multi-pad ice rink to attract the dollars that come with hockey. We've got the great soccer tournaments that have history and a lot of fields. We have a new field we can use for that. We have some infrastructure,” says Pegoraro.
In order to maximize the value of hosting events at these facilities, sport tourism needs to provide a complete package for the participants and their families, including this to do during their downtime. Sport tourists are on a vacation, she adds, and even going out for dinner can be seen as part of the experience of the event. "They're sort of escaped from their own life."
Social trends also factor into marketing strategy. In today's world, many parents are deeply entrenched in their children's lives, also known as “helicopter” or “hover” parents.
"The economic value of Under-18 events will increase because you'll see the entire family. Now (there's) a change in the focus where people are having kids later and they're focused on their child's life being the centre of theirs,” says Pegoraro.
As well, the soaring cost of sport has created an economic elitism, a new über-sport, uppermiddle class.
"If you can afford it, you're more likely to travel and spend more money. You're looking at an income bracket of individuals that is different than it used to be as well,” says Pegoraro.
Promoting Sudbury as a sport tourism destination takes time and a collaborative effort. A group needs to work constantly and solely on finding suitable events. The bidding process can take years. The local Ontario Summer Games organizing team has been working for over two years on the project.
Pegoraro cautions against relying solely on volunteers to bring sporting events to the city because, at some point, those individuals will burn out or move on.
"Within either the city structure or partnerships with the sport councils, the city, and the education organizations, you need people who are dedicated to looking so you're not fully reliant on volunteer groups to try and bring these events in."
In the meantime, Rob St. Marseille's dedication to mountain biking inspired James Rinneard, owner of Demarco's Sports. Rinneard formed a BMX cycling team for the OSG and to ride the city's new BMX track near Sudbury's Adanac Skill Hill. "Our customers started coming in talking about (mountain biking) and how much they're loving it. I think we can do the same thing with BMX," Rinneard says.
