World Baseball Challenge Hits Sweet Spot With Council
By 250 News
Monday, January 04, 2010 07:30 PM
Prince George, B.C.- The World Baseball Challenge returns to Prince George in July of 2011 and the organizing committee is calling on the City for support.
Last summer’s event saw 6 teams compete in Prince George for the tournament, and while the exact financial impact on the City has not been determined, it is estimated to have boosted the economy by at least $1.5 million dollars.
In preparation for the July 2011 event, the committee is calling on the City to help plan for some financial support. While the committee expects to raise dollars through the private sector, it says matching dollars may be required to secure funding for projects such as, temporary seating ( the City had provided up to $100 thousand dollars for this in the ’09 event) improvements to Rotary Field (cost estimate not yet known), moving the fences further back to reduce the number of home runs, and the movement of some light standards estimated at $195 thousand dollars.
While the committee hopes to secure funding from other sources, the amount the City would be expected to contribute is not yet known.
The committee members say they are making their case known now so Council can prepare through two budget cycles for possible contributions.
Councilor Cameron Stolz noted that recent upgrades to other City ballfields were in the $200 thousand dollar range, and that did not include irrigation as is requested by the World Baseball Challenge Committee. "I would think this would cost half a million to $600 thousand dollars and I don;t where we would find that kind of money." He asked the presenters what would happen if the City was not able to come up with the dollars requested, a question he posed three times to get an answer about the impact on the event, "We will still go ahead with the event in July 2011, but we will lose some caliber of teams" responded Committee chair, Jim Swanson.
The priority for work would be additional temporary seating as number one, then the changes to the fences to inmprove the quality of play, and third, the upgrades to Rotary Field.
City Staff will work with the organizing committee to develop an enhancement request that would be presented during the budget process.
"This is an opportunity we can't slide by" says Councilor Dave Wilbur "There will have to be some creative thinking, about how we can make this happen."
Councilor Don Bassermann asked that Staff look at the major events reserve and possibly the capital plan to see if there is some way for these projects to be funded from either of those two areas.
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Posted by: opinionated on January 4 2010 11:11 PM
Spending like a drunken prom date... GO DAN