The City of Richmond is only interested in attracting major events to the Olympic oval and has lost touch with community sport.
Thats the frank assertion of Richmond Sports Council chair Jim Lamond in the wake of city councils decision not to bid for the 2016 BC Summer Games.
Lamond pulled no punches in his assessment of why city staff and the majority of Richmond councillors steered clear of hosting the grassroots event for 14-16-year-old athletes in four years.
(The citys) focus has been lost a little and its not surprising that the citys sports hosting office has been moved to the oval, said Lamond.
However, 90 per cent of the sports tournaments in the city are run by volunteers and are held away from the oval.
The oval is a marvelous building, but it has to justify its existence and thats where the citys focus has gone.
Richmond cant and shouldnt lose sight of sport in the community, insisted Lamond. This has been a big opportunity missed.
City staff recommended no bid be placed due to concerns over cost estimated to be $367,000 a strain on staff resources, ability to attract volunteers and a clash with other established sporting events.
Mayor Malcolm Brodie, along with councillors Linda Barnes, Harold Steves, Chak Au and Derek Dang voted last week to go with the staffs view.
The rest of council, Bill McNulty, Ken Johnston, Evelina Halsey-Brandt and Linda McPhail, were all in favour of putting in a bid.
Lamond added that he was very disappointed about the decision and finds it hard to believe the games are good for everywhere else in B.C., but not for Richmond.
We thought it was a perfect fit and some of the city staffs numbers on this one were way out of line.
However, our budget was $860,000 and the citys was around $1.2 million. No summer games has ever lost money.
Lamond said he felt city staff were coming up with excuses more than anything else.
They said it would interfere with programs already running in the summer, such as the Nations Cup and the Dolphin Classic. But they are flexible to their dates and are only in one location.
I think staff have definitely lost sight of what Richmond should be going after.
All theyre interested in is hosting big international events and all of it is geared towards the oval and we seem to be losing sight of what built this city; things that are built from the grass roots, like the BC Summer Games.
Mayor Brodie defended the decision not to bid, saying it was a balancing act between the pros and cons of bringing the games to Richmond.
There was a certain cost involved, but that was not a factor for me, he said.
I was a part of the 1979 BC Summer Games, as part of the centennial celebrations for Richmond, and I believe it when staff say it was three to four times the size of the (BC Seniors) games.
Its an absolutely gigantic program and its whether we would better serve our goals by concentrating on other items and smaller events and bring better benefits to the city.
Brodie said the difference that pushed the prospective 2016 games into unprofitability as opposed to recent games in Surrey and Nanaimo was partly due to the city having to pay for the likes of janitorial services and drivers at the schools where the athletes would be lodged.
Thats not been the agreement in the past in other cities, said Brodie.
If we went ahead and put this on, Ive no doubt wed do a first class job and the volunteers in the city would engage.
But its not a matter of whether we can do it, its a question of whether it fits Richmond.
Brodie took umbrage with the accusation that everything is now focused towards propping up the oval, saying theres a wide variety of local grass roots tournaments supported by the city.
Saying that everything is geared towards the oval is misleading, he said.
This is a matter of choice and about better spending our energies elsewhere.
