A group bidding to bring the Commonwealth Games to Hamilton says it will not ask for financial support from the city as it redesigns its bid to land the games in 2030.
The change of direction, on the part of Hamilton 100, was outlined in a presentation to the city’s general issues committee Wednesday.
“The initial funding request for sports infrastructure, which would normally be part of a games program, we are almost entirely going to privatize,” said bid committee spokesperson Lou Frapporti. “So there will be no request to the city in that regard.”
“We, as a bid organization, will be making no request of the city for financial support in any way whatsoever,” he added.
His comments were reiterated by PJ Mercanti, another member of the bid committee.
“Instead of the City of Hamilton cutting a cheque to fund new facilities towards its share of a games bid, it’s the private sector writing that cheque,” Mercanti said. “It also will be the private sector operating these facilities, post-games.”
The Hamilton 100 bid team, a group of local business people and city boosters, was formed several years ago and originally planned to bid for the 2030 Commonwealth Games, before switching its focus to 2026.
The focus shifted back to 2030 after bid organizers were not able to get provincial support for the accelerated timeline.
They had previously indicated that the city would be asked to contribute millions of dollars to upgrade local venues.
Hamilton 100’s new timeline calls for a redesigned bid to be submitted next summer to the international Commonwealth Games Federation, which is expected to select a host city in 2023.
Concept review process
The next step for the bid committee is the finalization of a multi-party legal agreement for the purposes of defining, resourcing and delivering the games, according to Frapporti.
The ‘concept review process’ is expected to provide broad outlines of how different the 2030 bid will compared to the 2026 venture particularly with reduced demands on government at every level, and much higher degree of engagement by the private sector.
“We wanted to to move away from the concept of a bid being something that happens 10 years from now and turn it into more of a movement that can begin now with the variety of stakeholders and partners that we already have,” Frapporti told 900 CHML’s Good Morning Hamilton.
“This effort, which includes notably a variety of First Nations, huge number of universities and academic institutions, a growing group of private sector partners, et cetera.”
The viability of the games going forward will now lean heavily on the private sector and a variety of large infrastructure projects with a significant portion tied to the downtown urban redevelopment project.
Frapporti says a public consultation process involving the urban design firm and the conference board of Canada are expected to seek community feedback on how to make all development more aligned with the values that the games speak to, particularly sustainability and climate change.
“This is the central pillar of our work,” said Frapporti.
“How can we bring in the entire community in that we’re looking to do it right right now around existing community projects that are all aligned with the games and will be key benefits in the end.”
The bid committee is not expected to submit any part of their plan to the games decision makers until all public feedback sessions have been completed in the next year.
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