Councillor Ron Polillo is feeling excitement after attending a session at the Union of BC Municipalities convention on hosting FIFA World Cup watch parties.
At City Council’s meeting on September 17th, City Council discussed a notice of motion put forward by Polillo, directing staff to plan and execute the watch parties to be held at Canada Games Plaza.
After it was brought up the Union of BC Municipalities would be holding a workshop on hosting watch parties, Council decided to wait until after UBCM to hear more.
Polillo attended the session along with City Staff, he said there was lots of good information available.
“I think the biggest thing I took back from that, it depends on the size of the event you want,” he said.
“Anything under 1,000 you really don’t have to go through an application process, more than 1,000 then you would have to go through an application process and a portal and essentially get permission from the rights holders in Canada, which is Bell Media, TSN and CTV, but if you’re hosting something under 1,000, which was kind of my vision, it looks very promising, there’s very little in terms of paperwork or process you would need to get through to actually host a party.”
In Polillo’s notice of motion, he mentioned Canada Games Plaza as his desired location.
“It was really to activate Canada Games Plaza, which for Council is a priority,” he said.
“Tourism Prince George is doing a real good job of that already so this would enhance what is already happening at Canada Games Plaza.”
He added inside the Civic Centre or CN Centre could be potential locations as well.
Polillo said he would encourage private restaurants and businesses to have their own watch parties as well.
“I think the session at UBCM was very helpful, and I think really gave us some clear information and a clear plan for staff to come back and give us more information and for Council to make a final decision,” he said.
“I’m really excited about it, I think it’ll be something that soccer fans in Canada will be very excited, even sports fans or people who don’t know much about soccer I think will be caught up in the excitement of hosting a FIFA World Cup in our country and our province.”
City staff will return to the Council table with a report at a later date.
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