Calgary’s hopes of hosting the X Games have been kiboshed as the provincial government has pulled the funding for the multi-million dollar project.
It was announced in March, to much fanfare, that Calgary had secured the games for a minimum of three years, starting in 2020. The deal was expected to bring about $75 million a year to Calgary for each of those three years.
The former NDP government had committed to spending $13.5 million on bringing the X Games to Calgary, saying it would support 540 jobs each year.
Following the strict UCP budget tabled a week ago, the decision was made to pull the X Games for 2020 because of cuts to the Ministry of Economic Development, Trade and Tourism’s operating budget.
Over the weekend, city officials said they believed the cuts would only impact the 2020 event and the 2021 games would go ahead. Mayor Naheed Nenshi echoed that sentiment earlier this week.
On Thursday though, the tune changed, with Tourism Calgary saying in a news release the province informed it on Wednesday that “provincial funding would no longer be considered” for 2021 and 2022.
“We’re disappointed. We’re really disappointed,” Tourism Calgary CEO Cindy Ady said Thursday.
“We really did think this was a very, very good project for Calgary. We still feel strongly that it’s a good project for Calgary.”
Ady said the ministry told Tourism Calgary it couldn’t afford $14.5 million on the games during the tough economic times, saying: “they were sorry but they would not be able to support the games.”
“It was a matter of about $13.5 million for the province but it has a $75-million-a-year return,” Ady said. “So $13.5 million to $225 million.”
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Ady said the games would have brought hundreds of spectators who would have been spending money on more than just tickets to the sporting events.
“It gets busy… the hotels, the cabs, the restaurants and that entire industry which, in the month of February, it isn’t particularly busy like it is in the summer,” she said.
“It’s a very important industry to Calgary. One in 10 Calgarians actually make their living in this industry.”
Nenshi said Thursday afternoon hosting the X Games would have been a “massive economic impact for the city.”
“It’s hard to get people to Calgary year-round,” he said. “The whole point of the X Games was to bring people in at what is a traditionally slow time of year for tourism.
“That project will not be proceeding and that, I think, is a shame.”
Nenshi said the ministry said the X Games should be paid for entirely through private sponsorship.
“Certainly there was an enormous amount of private sponsorship in the budget and the business plan, but it did require that bit of government funding from the city and the province to be able to get over the hump on this and I just don’t see that being replaced,” Nenshi said.
“So as of today, unfortunately, that project will not move forward in Calgary.”
Ady said they hoped to have a chance to sit down with the government to make the case for why it should fund the games, which the government at first said it was open to, but on Wednesday the minister, Tanya Fir, called and said there would be no reconsideration.
Ady said the X Games is an event that came at a “relatively small price point,” which Calgary could have benefited from greatly.
In an emailed statement, Fir said the government “inherited a difficult fiscal situation and the NDP committed the money for X Games mere days before calling the election, outside of their budget.”
“Our government is making prudent decisions with taxpayer dollars and we hope that the private sector will step up to provide enough sponsorship for X Games.”
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