Prince George City Council heard an update on hosting FIFA World Cup watch parties at last night’s (Monday) meeting.
In September, Councillors Ron Polillo and Cori Ramsay put forward a notice of motion to explore the possibility of hosting watch parties for the World Cup, set for June in various cities in Canada, Mexico, and the United States.
At that meeting, Council decided to hold off on a decision, as an information session on hosting watch parties was being held at the Union of BC Municipalities convention that month as well.
At last night’s meeting, Council received an update on the expression of interest process and available grant funding to support hosting watch parties.
According to Manager of Event Services Debbie Heywood, the Ministry of Tourism, Arts, Culture and Sport has launched a time-limited grant program to support soccer-themed community events taking place during the World Cup tournament.
She also noted the applications for this grant are due this Friday.
“The Community Event Support Fund has two funding streams, the first one is for community events that celebrates soccer, multi-culturalism and civic pride,” Heywood said.
“This could include a public live match viewing of less than 1,000 people per day.”
Heywood added funding requests for this stream could be for up to $50,000, covering 85 per cent of eligible expenses. Staff estimated the remaining 15 per cent the City would have to cover would be $8,900.
The second stream would be for public live match viewing with a capacity for more than 1,000 people per day. This stream would fund up to $150,000, with the grant covering 75 per cent of eligible expenses.
Heywood recommended going with the first stream.
“Staff could execute a wide scope of celebrations from as small as a one-day community event, coordinated with partner organizations under the first stream, to as large as having the FIFA Canada Celebrates Festival Caravan come to Prince George that would consist of a full day of soccer themed activations, cultural programming, music, food, and a live match three hour viewing, and that would be under the second stream,” she said.
Heywood added several organizations, including local organizations have expressed support for hosting these events.
Councillor Polillo put applying for the first grant stream on the floor for discussion.
“The fact that 85 per cent of this can be paid by the provincial association, provincial grants, to me is even a further win,” he said.
“This is really a once-in-a-generation opportunity, I believe. I don’t think that Canada, in the next 20 or 30 years, maybe even 40, will host another FIFA World Cup.”
Councillor Ramsay said this would be a great opportunity to bring more activity downtown at a relatively low cost.
“We saw a lot of activity this weekend with AleFest, with the Siren Cup, that’s the activity we want to see downtown, and it’s very clear that more events are the way to do that,” she said.
Council approved applying for the $50,000 grant to host the free events.
Something going on in the Prince George area you think people should know about?
Send us a news tip by emailing pgnews@vistaradio.ca.
