The City of St. Albert is out of the running for the 2027 Alberta Seniors 55+ Summer Games.
The bid package is almost ready to go, but significant changes to the format, in particular a shift from athletic competition to card games, prompted staff to recommend that city councillors shelve it and seek another major event to host.
As the committee of the whole, city councillors on Dec. 10 unanimously accepted that advice (6-0, Coun. Natalie Joly had left the meeting by then) and will make a final vote on the matter at an upcoming sitting of council.
The changes also include a merging of the summer and winter games to one event, indeed, the Summer Games that city council asked staff to bid on no longer exists.
The active events have been reduced from seven to just four – cycling, swimming, tennis, and track and field. Others were dropped in favour of more passive activities such as card games and billiards. In fact, eight in 10 events offered are more social pastimes than athletic competitions now and despite there being more of them, city staff projected they would attract smaller crowds. Cultural events are now optional, and with an increase from 14 to 18 mandatory events, may have been left out entirely.
“This is a pretty massive change, from doing sports to playing cards,” Coun. Sheena Hughes said. “Watching people play cards is not as exciting as you think. I have seen no television shows about playing cards.”
She was corrected by a couple of people in the room who have seen some of the extensive coverage of high-stakes poker tournaments in recent years.
“Well, poker is a whole different situation,” she responded. “We’re not playing poker on these suckers.”
Sporting venues that were consulted would not have even been utilized. Games organizers are now more interested in large halls than tracks or fields.
All this would increase the cost to the city, hamstring its ability to recoup with ticket sales, and decrease the participation of established St. Albert non-profit organizations.
Who wants to pay to watch dozens of people play cribbage?
Denise Podlusky, the city’s director of recreation, said no real reason was given for the change by the games’ organizers. She said the city was informed of the change in October.
The drive for the games dates back to the post-pandemic days of 2022, when communities like St. Albert were looking for ways to shake free of those pesky restrictions and re-connect.
St. Albert investigated hosting the games as celebration of sport, art and culture through enriching social activities.
“There was a desire for a games or major event that would impact a number of non-profits and allow relationships to renew and grow,” she said.
Mayor Cathy Heron said her only question was around what St. Albert’s priorities are in terms of hosting a major multi-sport games – staff responded that businesses and non-profits surveyed in 2022 said they wanted an event that would involve amateur sporting organizations, create opportunities for volunteerism and make use of existing facilities (and maybe even grow them).
Heron said the Special Olympics were always her “first choice,” pointing to what she considered a successful Special Olympics Canada Winter Games here in 2012. The recreation department is indeed looking at the 2029 Alberta Special Olympics, as well as the 2028 Alberta winter and summer games.
“We have a pretty good Special Olympics organization in St. Albert, so I’m sure they would be excited,” the mayor said.
City staff are to return to council with suggestions for other events to host by next spring.
“I wish you luck in finding something that’s a little more exciting,” Coun. Shelley Biermanski said.
