REGINA — Regina city council is backing a bid for the city to host the 2024 Brier.
At their meeting Wednesday, council unanimously approved supporting the community’s bid with a contribution of up to $200,000, which includes a cash grant of $125,000 and provision of Regina Transit services valued up to $75,000.
That funding will be provided by the city through its 2024 annual events, conventions and tradeshows attraction budget. It would be conditional on Curl Regina demonstrating it has the ability to plan and host the event through a comprehensive budget and event plan, as well as a few others including a commitment from Curl Regina.
Regina’s contribution is a portion of an overall $1,030,000 bid, which would include other partners such as Tourism Saskatchewan, Tourism Regina, the Regina Hotels Association and Regina Exhibition Association Ltd.
Regina last hosted the Brier in 2018 at the Brandt Centre. In speaking to reporters, Mayor Sandra Masters said that event provided a major economic boost to the city.
“The economic impact of hosting the Brier in the city of Regina was in the tens of millions of dollars,” said Masters.
“So if you think about a winter sport in a winter city, if we’re not hosting events it’s hard to get people to come and visit and hang out with us … Curling Canada loves to host events here. We’re excellent hosts. We get a ton of visitors to our community. They spend money, they stay, they enjoy our city. And it’s worth millions in wintertime when perhaps tourism is an appetite.”
According to the city memo provided to council Wednesday, the economic impact of hosting the Brier is estimated by Curling Canada at a minimum of $8 to $12 million. Hotel rooms booked by Curling Canada alone contribute an estimated 2,250 room nights to the local economy. An estimated 400 volunteers will be required to put the event on.
The 2024 Brier is scheduled to go March 1 to 10, 2024. So far, Victoria, B.C. has also announced plans to put in their own bid.
Mayor Masters expressed confidence that the number Regina is putting forward will be enough.
“We’ve won these bids before and there’s a certain level of expertise within the community between Regina Hotels Association, Tourism Regina, Curling Saskatchewan and then local folks run all the volunteers. I’m confident the number they’ve given us is appropriate.”
