Non-profit sports organizations can now apply for upwards of $5,000 from the city as part of a new Sport Hosting Grant.
City of Grande Prairie Community Recreation Supervisor Katie Bieberdorf says funding looks to not only encourage organizations to host events that bring more visitors to Grande Prairie but to bring bigger events that can have a trickle-down effect on the economy as a whole.
“It has been challenging the last couple of years for sports organizations to host events just based on the pandemic, so this is another way to support them to bring these events in, and have these athletes competing in front of a hometown crowd,” she says.
“So that we are bringing people in, staying in hotels, eating in restaurants, two of the hardest-hit industries in the last couple of years,”
Bieberdorf says eligible events will, in addition to being hosted by a not-for-profit, will take place over a minimum of two days, and be of a provincial, western Canada, national, or international sporting event. She says planning for the grant kicked into high gear over the last couple of months after a surplus in the city’s large-scale tourism grant allowed the money to be used elsewhere.
“We definitely get requests for support for events fairly regularly, by way of sponsorship or reduced facility rental fees, for example, so it’s definitely coming from both sides,” she says.
“It definitely helps sports organizations build capacity, [and] it promotes volunteerism in the community as well.”
Applications for the new grant are open, and will due on March 1st and July 1st each year.