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Tourism Regina says it’s exciting to see the city continuing talks about the possibility of constructing several new sporting facilities.
On Wednesday, a city committee appointed Coun. Bob Hawkins and Tim Reid — the president and CEO of Regina Exhibition Association Limited — to co-chair a new committee and help determine what would need to happen for the city to build a new aquatic centre, baseball stadium and hockey arena.
Tourism Regina’s Tyler Lloyd feels it’s a step in the right direction when it comes to attracting visitors to the city.
“Generally speaking, the infrastructure for events and hosting is incredibly important for the viability of any major city,” he explained Thursday.
“When you have things like the Grey Cup that we’re going to be hosting here in November, you’re filling hotels and giving your residents a bunch of events that would otherwise go to another jurisdiction.
“We see about $300 million into our GDP from tourism into our city and a big chunk of that is from event hosting,” he added. “Without that infrastructure and a commitment to rebuilding and regenerating that infrastructure, we could potentially see some of those dollars go away.”
Lloyd says Tourism Regina will have a role on the new committee in figuring out what new sporting and recreation facilities could look like, but he couldn’t say much because work is in the early stages.
Lloyd figures the city already does a tremendous job when it comes to hosting events. He thinks adding some new state-of-the-art facilities will make sure major events continue to call Regina home.
“One of our key pillars here at Tourism Regina is about (making us) a sport-hosting and event-hosting destination. Really being aggressive and chasing becoming that host destination is kind of Regina’s superpower,” he said.
“When an event is hosted here, it is a full city takeover and things look and feel different than they do when it’s hosted in Toronto. Sport governing bodies see that and I think that gives us an advantage. If we could match facilities with those cities, I think we’re in pretty good shape.”
The committee has until the end of the year to present its plan for the facilities to a city council committee.
