Michelle Collens

Date: July 12, 2017

Name: Company of Young Professionals Leadership Series – The Business of Sport Hosting

Presenters: Michelle Collens and Chrissy Benz

Many major sports events, such as Olympic or FIFA World Cup, improve city’s economic impact. Moreover, leaders can leverage this business opportunity. Company of Young Professionals invites Michelle Collens, the Senior Manager of Sport Hosting for the City of Vancouver and Chrissy Benz, the Manager of the Women’s National team and Events at Volleyball Canada, to discuss how sports hosting can impact the city’s economic, social and cultural health. In this presentation, young leaders will learn how sports hosting invites business opportunities around the world; importantly, leaders will discover how it impact local businesses.

Michelle Collens is the Manager of Sport Hosting Vancouver from City of Vancouver. She involved in many major sport hosting in Vancouver, including 2015 FIFA Women’s World Cup, 2016 Americas Masters Games, Davis Cup, HSBC World Rugby Canada Sevens. She is preparing for the 209 IIHF World Junior Championship. Michelle Collens was the Assistant Chef de Mission for Team BC, 2017 Canada Summer Games for 5 years.

Chrissy Benz is the Manager of Women’s National Volleyball team for Volleyball Canada. She involved in 2017 FIVB Grand Pix. In 2015, Chrissy Benz brought over 800 teams to Calgary for the international tournament. In addition, she was the Sport Event Director of Domestic Competitions, the Director of NORCECA, and Manager of National Olympic and Paralympic committee Volunteer Program.

The Business of Sport Hosting

Vancouver is known as a sport city in Canada. As a matter of fact, there is not strategy, especially after the Winter Olympic 2010. The city has connections and incentive, but people believed there is no strong reason to initiate major sport hosting. The city does not own the stadium, which does not create great profit for the city. Therefore, the city could not follow the traditional route like any other cities.

Collens believes Vancouver can attract, develop and support world-class sports events through great partnerships, enthusiastic guidance and innovative approach. The 5 major partners are City of Vancouver, University of British Columbia, Tourism Vancouver, Vancouver Hotel Destination Association, and BC Pavilion Corporation. Collens shows the challenge is that all 5 major partners work separately, and sport hosting is a way to collaborate these partners together.

Based on the Vancouver sports hosting long term action plan, there is a fundamental framework. First, it improves coordination and collaboration. Second, it dedicates resources for product development. Third, it expands Vancouver’s sport events calendar. Fourth, it develops event assessment tools. Lastly, it increases Vancouver’s profile as a sport hosting destination. Collens emphasizes “create experience” is the key factor of the framework. As the momentum grows in Vancouver, it attracts new players. This extends people’s stay and reallocates resources. The business communities are matching with Vancouver’s actions. Social media and websites are aligning up, which helps sports hosting to know who to call. Furthermore, it creates attention internationally.

In 2016, there were 3 major event bids, which created economic impact of over $64 million with over 20,000 visitors and over 25,000 room nights. The sports hosting helped Vancouver received industry recognition, such as CSTA Prestige awards. The 5 year hosting strategy was in place, and aligned with youth, especially first nation. The capacity of 5,000 tickets is accessible to anyone in the city to engage the community. It reached over 15 million visitors over the year.

Overall, Collens believes the measuring success of 2016 has surpassed 2015, even 2010. The growth of tourism has increased significantly, which allows one event leads to another.

There are many world class sports hosting events that can bring significant economic impact to Vancouver. The first one is HSBC Canada Sevens World Rugby Series. The event will create $8.3 million economic impact. It is a huge opportunity for Vancouver. The next event is called Canada Soccer Men’s National team FIFA World Cup 2018 qualifiers. It can attract 54,798 attendance. Vancouver is looking forward to Gran Fondo event in Whistler, skating, and 2019 IIHF World Junior Hockey Championship.

Case Study

Benz states there is a huge transition growth in Volleyball Canada National Champions.

• Evolution
• Current model and event
• Monetizing the event

Volleyball events are now changing the platform. The current model is changing, and the way of monetizing the event is changing to be more effective and efficient.

Traditionally, it was only 8 to 10 teams for each division (Midget East, West, and Juvenile). It required to be quantified through high school and university gym. There was hardly any revenue source.

In 2012, the event managed to bring everyone under one roof. The fans were able to see 26 different teams in Toronto. People realized it is more than volleyball because it helps everyone to see the world class athletes. That event created 20,000 room nights and over 10,000 athletes attend the city. It was the major highlight of the entire city.

In 2015, the event was hosted in Calgary. The event had over 20,000 spectators, 200 staffs, and 350 refs. The event created high performance integration. Benz mentions the growth from 2012 to 2015 increase significantly. It applies the “stay to play” policy. There were 3,000 youth matches over the 6 days and over 4,000 medals distributed. That event created $20 million economic impact. With the revenue of $2.7 million and expense of $2.5 million, the event had the net profit of $571,000. That event itself created business opportunities, especially careers.

Questions and Answers  

Collens mentions in the next 5 years, sport hosting will start to package the sporting experience. For instance, by creating a tour for the sport events, it layers the incremental businesses. Local businesses will able to leverage this sport event opportunity.

Comparing with different cities, both Collens and Benz state Vancouver does not have the same sports venue like other cities, such as Toronto. However, Vancouver has its advantage on product offering. Vancouver is catching up and businesses are noticing the cycle. People are able to see the niche.

“Sport activity will solve the potential future economic health”

Vancouver does not view sport events as “one time only” event. Sport hosting allows the city to leverage the sport events statistically and become the true identity for Vancouver.

Benz believes the major challenge in volleyball event is to engage non-volleyball players to volleyball community. Social media and emails are limited for them unless they follow. Resource is limited and coordinating the schedule can be a troublesome.

“They can’t just sell sport, they need to live the experience”

Collens shares there are 3 current metrics for sport hosting.

1. Community engagement
2. Participation of youth
3. Number of success and reject calls