The Canmore Nordic Centre and community will host two back-to-back world cup events in February 2016.
The news of the biathlon world cup has been known for some time in the community, but a cross-country event wasn’t until a delegation from the organizing committees and Canmore Business and Tourism presented to council last week.
“This gives Canmore a chance to truly own the Nordic sporting world for a month and we need to make sure we take advantage of that,” said CBT president and CEO Andrew Nickerson.
The biathlon world cup is scheduled for Feb. 1-7 and the cross-country races from Feb. 22-28. Those are part of a larger event throughout Canada that begins the week before in Quebec, comes to Canmore for three races and then one in Lake Louise.
“There are several reasons why these world cups come to Canmore. First of all, not being in northern Europe definitely helps because they are looking to get off the continent every few years and second, Canmore has a world class organizing committee,” Nickerson said. “The Canmore Nordic Centre is, of course, a truly world class venue and it was ranked number 1 in the world in 2012 and it is widely believed Alberta puts on the best Nordic events in the world.
“Bringing these events here is the result of a huge collaboration between the organizing committees and by working together they can see they drive efficiencies, they raise profile for the event and enjoy increased sponsorship that gets raised and raise the bar even higher so ultimately we can create the best world cups ever.”
Nickerson said CBT has joined forces with the organizing committees to develop a festival of the same quality as the sporting events to happen in Canmore during the month of February. With the popularity of Nordic sports in Europe, he said, the audience for the events is quite large and creates an opportunity for Canmore.
“World cups are very big business in terms of TV viewership, so they attract 40 million viewers per event with over a billion viewers watching per season,” he said. “At the same time, we really need to understand that the opportunity is somewhat unique and to have back to back world cup Nordic events in different disciplines at the same venue is extremely rare.
“It gives us a chance to expose Canmore to a very significant audience. We expect 10,000-plus people visiting on-site as spectators, but we are looking at over 100 hours of television featuring Canmore in all its glory.”
Nickerson estimated in excess of 17 million viewers for the events, saying from a marketing perspective Canmore could never buy that kind of exposure.
He asked council to begin considering financially supporting development of a festival event during its next strategic planning session. He pointed to 2012’s Nordic Festival as well as the annual Snow Tracks as a starting point to develop a major event for 2016.
“We need a new approach as we move forward we need to deliver more than just great races and we need to get the town and businesses firmly behind the events and not just in name only, so this is a real chance for us to make a statement,” he said. “Right now, neither the organizing committees or Canmore Business and Tourism have funding available to elevate the event without additional support.
“We are looking for council to take a leadership role in driving this forward; firstly, with a strong declaration of support, and then we are looking for backup in terms of committed resources.”
