I must admit that as a very sports-minded youngster growing
up in Sudbury, I was pretty spoiled. I hit my teenage years at
a time when sports seemed to rule in the Nickel City - the
number of participants were growing, new facilities were being
built and everyone seemed to follow the local sports scene.
As I moved onto Laurentian University in the early 1980s,
Sudbury celebrated its Centennial and welcomed athletes from
across the country to this lovely northern Ontario mining town.
Over a period of a few years, I enjoyed the opportunity to be
part of the Ontario Summer Games, the Canadian Games for the
Physically Disabled as well as the World Junior Track and Field
Championships.
As I spent three absolutely lovely days in Ottawa last week,
scurrying about from various sporting venues and back to the
media centre, attempting to soak up as much of the feeling of
the 2008 Ontario Summer Games as possible, I quickly remembered
why I have always felt so strongly that events such as this are
an absolute godsend for almost any community.
With some 3,000 young athletes in town and countless parents,
sports officials and volunteers also taking part in the Games,
it was difficult not to catch some of the wave of excitement
that enveloped the nation's capital, no matter where my
travels  took me.
Venues ranged right across the Capital region - volleyball at
the University of Ottawa, basketball at Carleton, swimming at
the Nepean Sportsplex, and athletics at the Terry Fox Athletics
Facility out near Moody's Bay. In fact, even the City of
Kingston got involved, hosting the BMX cycling competition some
two hours southwest of Ottawa.
If an event of this size can be felt notably in a city of some
half a million people, one can't help but wonder how much more
prevalent the entire "feeling of the Games" will be in a more
close-knit community of 150,000 or so.
While the economic spinoff alone of injecting some 5,000 or so
additional bodies into any region is sure to be positive, the
value of the Games cannot be measured in immediate cost alone.
The reality is that for a good majority of those attending the
2008 Games - both athletes and otherwise - Ottawa would most
likely be a travel destination of choice at some point, simply
because of all it has to offer. Such is one of the benefits
that comes with being the nation's capital.
Sudbury, on the other hand, requires, in many cases, a little
more prodding to lure a certain percentage of visitors. It
really doesn't matter how great you and I and countless
Sudburians might feel about our city, there will always be a
stigma held about this area by a certain percentage of the
population of the province (hopefully, an ever decreasing
percentage).
Therein lies one of those benefits that may not be measured
immediately - the chance to sell the City of Greater Sudbury to
future prospective post-secondary students, future potential
employees of companies operating in northern Ontario, and
future potential tourists always on the lookout for potential
holiday destinations.
The Ontario Summer Games are not the Olympics, not by a long
shot. But in many ways, that may not be a bad thing at all. The
Games still encompass an element of friendship within the
competition that seems to come part and parcel of hosting any
multi-sport event.
As I sat in the media room, gathering tidbits of result
information for the Sudbury-based athletes competing, I was
reminded of the "war rooms" of previous competitions hosted
locally. Ongoing concerns and challenges of trying to ensure
accommodation needs are met, transportation issues popping up
hourly and attempting to ensure that all necessary volunteers
are at their appointed posts and properly fed.
Yes, it was chaos at times. Yet so many of those wonderfully
chaotic times in the past have stayed with me over all of these
years, thinking back to working with out-of-town media and
athletes who came to Sudbury to compete and enjoy the wonderful
hospitality that is inherent within the community.
It was chaos, but fun…and unforgettable…and something I will be
all too happy to do over once again in two years time.
Randy Pascal is the voice of Persona 10 sports and the founder of SudburySports.com
