A Red Deer community bid to host the 2019 Canada Winter Games received initial backing from Red Deer College on Tuesday.
The board of governors decided that the college should be a strong supporter and stakeholder in moving forward with what will hopefully be a successful bid.
“In order to be successful, we would need to be a part of that bid, in particular with the athletes’ village,” said president Joel Ward.
“We have the housing. So we have indicated our interest to the city.”
In June, city council unanimously endorsed a bid for the 17-day sporting event involving Canada’s elite youth participating in one of an estimated 20 sports.
The community and city officials are doing a basic assessment of what it would take to host the games based on facility requirements.
The development of a competitive bid costs around $200,000.
Council had approved to give $5,000 out of the Recreation, Parks and Culture budget to be used for this basic assessment.
Lyn Radford, the Red Deer chair of the 2006 Alberta Summer Games who helped compile a bid package report with Mike Klass, said that the college’s help is essential.
The host community would be announced in September 2014.
“Right now, we’re at the assessment stage, so we’re seeing if we have enough facilities to move forward into the next stage,” said Radford, a college board member.
The next stage will involve an in-depth review of facilities required for the bids package.
Radford said that the games committee will present a report to city council in November.
“Council will have to do their due diligence because each stage requires a bigger cash input,” she said.
ltester@www.reddeeradvocate.com