City bids for national skating tourney

By Joel Wittnebel/The Oshawa Express

Oshawa has thrown its name in the hat to host one of the country’s largest skating competitions in 2017.

If awarded The Canadian Tire National Skating Championships, Oshawa could see the country’s top figure skaters arrive in the city to compete at the General Motors Centre.

The event, organized by Skate Canada in collaboration with a local organizing committee, could see 500 participants flock to the arena.

But it won’t come cheap.

If awarded, the city will be doling out $120,000 for Skate Canada’s rental fees at the GM Centre for the length of the event. That sum consists of $40,000 in rental fees for the ice pads, and $80,000 to pay Spectra, the company the city uses to run the GM Centre, for staff, utilities, custodial services, the work to outfit the arena to Skate Canada specifications, including the painting of ice logos and removal of glass, posts and netting, among other items.

According to a city report, the GM Centre could net $139,000 from the event in the way of about $61,000 in ticket sales plus $78,000 in food and beverages, leading to a possible profit of $19,000.

The city has also estimated an approximate $10,000 increase in parking revenue from the event.

However, Councillor Bob Chapman says that hosting the event is not about benefiting the city’s coffers, but how the event will impact Oshawa’s economy as a whole, which he expects could be more of a draw than the Pan Am Games.

“It may lead to other events like this coming here,” Chapman adds.

In terms of economic benefit, the city of Kingston, which hosted the 2015 Skate Canada event, estimated a $3.3-million economic impact. Halifax is set to host the event in 2016 and it has estimated a $5-million impact.

Oshawa estimates the economic impact of a successful bid could be between $3 million and $5 million.

However, at a recent meeting of the finance and community services committees, concerns were raised that a bid may not be successful due to the state of the GM Centre’s jumbotron, which has been in need of repair for some time.

Vince Vella, the arena’s general manager, says he isn’t concerned about the jumbotron.

“The clock, the way it is right now, would be fine for this event,” Vella said, noting a high-definition feed will be used for the airing of the competition which improves the quality of the jumbotron screen. The same technique was used during the World Junior Championship pre-tournament game hosted at the GM Centre last year.

Vella also says Oshawa’s bid will be a very attractive one for Skate Canada.

“There’s a lot of thing that come to bear that make our bid very attractive,” he says.

The availability of a practice rink (the GM Centre’s second pad) being attached to the competition rink is a big plus factor along with the amount of space in the facility for advertising and the proximity to hotels and other amenities in the downtown will all play into Skate Canada’s final decision set to be made later this month.