The heads of each provincial team came this week to check out the progress of the Canada Winter Games preparations. They arrived Tuesday and will be in the city all week touring the facilities, taking copious notes about what is done, and holding frank meetings about what yet needs to happen to meet the national standards expected of this mega-event.
The good news is, according to Canada Games Council CEO Sue Hylland, the local organization team looks to be on track and well within expectations for being 140 days from go-time.
"Things are absolutely right where they should be," said Hylland. "All Games have different issues at different times, but as we look at how Prince George is going, things look on-track. That's what these meetings are all about."
There are three sectors of people in Prince George for this confab. Each province is represented on a Mission team (dealing with the athlete experience details) the Sponsor team (dealing with the financial and business models) and the Technical team (dealing with the facilities and venue logistics).
The Chef de Mission for each province is the overall leader of these teams. For British Columbia that is Rob Needham. He said this week of tours and analysis was critical to the overall plans of Team BC.
"The countdown is on," he said. "We were here about a year ago getting a sense of the lay of the land, and we have had a lot of communication since then, but these meetings this week is where the rubber really hits the road. We will come away with a long list of things we have to discuss with the coaches and organizers of each sport, and get a much better sense of how we will be able to operate as Team BC, not a bunch of different athletes and coaches in a bunch of different sports."
The athletic organization overseeing the sports for each province will come to the Canada Winter Games with about 20 volunteers to help the local organizers execute on those plans.
"I just love the venues. We have seen a lot of change since Prince George was announced as the host city," said Hylland. "Kin 1, Otway, even the construction work going on on the downtown streets - it all leads to a great Games experience. All the facilities we've seen so far are wonderful. The branding and marketing part of the equation is unbelievable. I am seeing the momentum of the Games just taking hold in the public. The people are engaging, the programming for youth and kids is coming together, we have confidence in the business side of the organizing, we definitely have some things we want to put some extra work into, but the financials look exceptional and that push is going on right to the very end. And that isn't just up to Stu [Ballantyne, Games CEO] and his local team, we have a role as well at the national organization level. We love what we see. All the recent Games have been financially successful, there is a model for that, and we believe that will be the case for Prince George as well."
