The first-ever Alberta-hosted National Aboriginal Hockey Championships are underway in Grande Prairie, hot on the heels of the 2024 Alberta Winter Games, also hosted in GP.
With numerous high-level sporting competitions and cultural events scheduled for the rest of 2024 and into 2025, Grande Prairie Mayor Jackie Clayton says her council is “extremely happy” with the success the city has seen in hosting so many high-level events.
“We’re extremely fortunate to have a council that’s very driven and passionate, we identified at the beginning of this term that we continually want to bring people to our region and our city,” she says.
The Mayor says while numerous entities contribute to the success of the city’s hosting power, the main driver remains the city’s “world-class” facilities and hospitality shown by residents.
“We want to show that off, we want to highlight it, so we’re fortunate to have an incredible group of not only volunteers, but user groups that support bringing tournaments of all levels, provincial, national, and local to our community,” she says. “That support is driven by an incredibly strong administration team who is well versed and experienced in hosting.”
While Clayton credits her administration team with much of the success that the city has seen when it comes to hosting so many events, she emphasizes the importance of community leaders and organizations on the hospitality side of things.
“A combination of our incredible administration and the strength of our user groups and our volunteer associations in our community and the vision of council is creating a great opportunity,” she says. “We’ve been very successful on our bids and bringing these sport and cultural events to the region, and it’s something that council continues to explore.”
Clayton adds that hosting events like the NAHC and the Alberta Winter Games are significant economic drivers for the city, and council remains “optimistic” that events like these will continue attracting new visitors and even potential new residents in the future.