CN Centre will be bursting at the seams with people Thursday night.
That’s one certainty for Renee McCloskey, president of the organizing committee bringing the 2022 BC Summer Games to Prince George this week.
As the site of the opening ceremony Thursday evening, CN Centre will be stretched to its capacity with 2,915 athletes, coaches, managers and officials guaranteed to show up and reserved tickets saved for more than 2,000 family members converging on the city from all over the province for the four-day sporting spectacle.
Sponsors and dignitaries also will be part of the grand opening of the Games and that will leave very few seats available for local residents hoping to get a glimpse of the athletes walking into the arena with their teams.
“Unfortunately there’s not much capacity at all for general public seating,” said McCloskey. “We’re learning a lot of family members are coming to support their athlete, which is fantastic for our community to have more visitors, and for the athlete to have that support system.
“But it’s not so fantastic when it comes to seating availability Thursday night. Unless you really need to be there, we’ll probably encourage you to focus your attention on heading out to the different sport events to cheer athletes on rather than do that at the opening ceremonies.”
A month ago, there was a severe shortage of volunteers signed up to help run the events but a lot has changed in that time. McCloskey is feeling a sense of relief that most of the volunteer posts have been filled with people who have committed their time to create a smooth-running operation.
She said there’s still a need for more food service volunteers, accommodations and mobile patrols at sport venues and there are still several unfilled positions at the rowing venue at Camp Hughes on Nadsilnich Lake (formerly West Lake).
“We’re definitely in better shape than we were a few weeks back, Prince George is coming through as it always does, at the last minute,” said McCloskey. “So we’ve got over 2,000 volunteers now and we’ll happily accept more right up until Sunday.
“We’re moving from planning to implementation and it’s exciting to see signs of things getting into place and venues getting ready. I think there are always a few things that may not go as we planned but we’re continuing to work hard and plan for those contingencies as best we can.”
The athletes are due to arrive Wednesday. Most are coming on 42 motorcoach buses and will travel from their respective zones on the highways, with the exception of the Kootenay and Vancouver Island-Central Coast zone teams. Because of the distances involved in getting to Prince George, they will fly to their destination aboard six chartered planes.
McCloskey said this is the first BC Summer Games in which all the athletes, coaches and officials are in the host city the day before the opening ceremony. That will allow three sports (artistic swimming, equestrian, soccer) to roll out their first events during the day Thursday, while the rest of the athletes get some practice time in at their respective venues.
Medal presentations will happen at each of the venues and some of that hardware will be handed out Thursday before the opening ceremony at Exhibition Park at the Agriplex, site of the equestrian events. Over the four days of competition, close to 1,900 medals will be given to the athletes in 218 medal ceremonies.
All events are scheduled to be completed by noon on Sunday. There is no closing ceremony. A tailgate party just for the participants is planned for Sunday afternoon at the CN Centre parking lot.
