The City of Lloydminster will be hosting the 2020 Saskatchewan Summer Games.
The Games are tentatively scheduled for July or August. There will be over 2,000 athletes, coaches and managers in 14 sports representing the nine sport and recreation districts within the province.
Sports included are archery, athletics, baseball, basketball, canoe kayak, golf, rugby 7s, soccer, softball, tennis, triathlon, swimming, Special Olympics swimming, and volleyball. Lloydminster has also twice played host to the Alberta Games, the Winter Games in 1982, and the Summer Games in 1997.
Executive Director of the Saskatchewan Games Council Mark Bracken says, “it’s just a great fit for us. The sport venues and facilities in the community are second to none, the spirit shown by the community through volunteerism, the track record of Lloydminster hosting other major sporting events.”
He adds that the size of the city and accommodations fit their criteria well.
According to the Saskatchewan Games Council the most recent games held in Estevan in 2016, generated an economic impact of nearly $8 million dollars due to visitor spending and capital development.
Bid Committee member Wendy Plandowski says “there’s no doubt that the economic impact is significant. The studies that we did in 97 and 2008, surplus of many millions of dollars that it brought into the region during the games through economic spin-off and not only that but we become a destination for western Canada. So tourism wise that’s also significant.”
The City has now entered the planning stages, which will require naming an organizing community, making upgrades to sporting facilities and finding 1500 volunteers to work with the Games.
This will be the second time Lloydminster has hosted the Saskatchewan Games, the first time was in 2008.