Central Sport receives $25,000 from Red Deer County

However, councillor Philip Massier was hesitant in the amount of money the county is contributing and had questions why other municipalities aren’t contributing more.

“I’ve got to find a way to ween this club off our $25,000 a year sponsorship. Do I want to cut them off? No. Do I see success if other municipalities and other revenue sources start to chip in at a fair level? Yes,” he said.

“There has to come a day when Red Deer County does not carry the weight for all the municipalities in this area. I don’t know what the city’s contributing and I don’t want to compare ourselves to the city… The motion on the table is $25,000 that’s the same we’ve been giving the last couple of years. When do we start weening ourselves because others are pulling up their socks? When do we set the example that Red Deer County can no longer be the supporter that everyone benefits from? There are 18,000 people in Sylvan and they’re contributing $5,000? What’s the right number? I don’t believe $25,000 is anymore.”

Massier suggested an amendment of $20,000 for the 2025 year.

Councillor Moore responded by saying it’s important they continue to support Central Sport even though she understands where Massier’s concerns were coming from. She did not support the amendment.

“The difference on $5,000 to our municipality is minimal and we do support organizations with much more money than this,” she said.

“I’m going to stick with the $25,000 and for this to come back to us, I agree we have to cut you loose but for now, $25,000.”

Meanwhile, Councillor Dana Depalme didn’t support either amount of $20,000 or $25,000. In fact, she was hoping to see it cut in half.

“The simple fact is, there’s lots of organizations that would like money… We have areas in the county that need support and when we don’t support them because we’re supporting other things, I have a hard time with that,” she said.

Many councillors were on the fence to support the $25,000 to Central Sport but ultimately, the original motion was approved with a vote of four to three. Councillor Depalme, Massier and Kennett voted against it.

The motion of the amendment of $20,000 from $25,000 was defeated in a vote of four to three.

Central Sport CEO Trevor Thomas was also in attendance to answer some of the councillors questions. He said they continue to look at different ways for money to come in.

“Originally the goal was five years and that’s pretty standard for most in terms of getting off the ground and getting that funding going from alternate sources. We are looking at hiring a volunteer coordinator so when we do events we can actually have volunteers. When I was here last time I mentioned that we’ve connected with an organization called charitable impacts so people in our community that want to donate are able to do that now and get a tax receipt,” he said.

“We’re looking at ways at being sustainable. The challenge is right now we don’t live on a lot of money. We live on $125,000 including the grant from the city and the county, which isn’t a lot of money considering all the things we’ve been doing and growing into. The goal was five years and we’re still hoping to meet it by that time.”

They had two new municipalities hop on board which were Blackfalds and Sylvan Lake who contributed $5,000 each. They had a few other private organizations that also sponsored events.

Thomas said they’ve approached the Town of Penhold and are in talks about hosting a cornhole event later this year or in early 2026. They’ve also had initial meetings with the Town of Innisfail and are hoping to build on that.

“The biggest thing we’re trying to show is to provide worth and as soon as we do that communities are a little more apt to come to us. We’ve already done that with Sylvan Lake, Blackfalds, and we’re doing that with Penhold. As we bring the circle out a little more that’s the goal.”

He also explained that volunteers are essential to their success saying if they don’t have them they wouldn’t be able to run.

Central Sport is hosting an Xplore Sport Day on March 29 at the G.H. Dawe Community Centre in Red Deer. Part of it involves having a sport symposium which will allow local sports organizations to come in prior to the event to explain to these organizations if they want to host events, how they can be supported.

They can be supported financially through the Central Sport’s committee they have through Tourism Red Deer, supported through marketing efforts, and also through their volunteer base.

“Generally, we know that’s the biggest barrier of hosting an event, is volunteers,” he added.

The organization has recently worked with the Canadian Ringette Association because they’re looking for somewhere to host the world championships.

“We’re in the initial stage of that showing what that might look like. Without an army of volunteers, we couldn’t even start looking at that and that’s just one event,” he said.

“In three weeks, I go to the Canadian Sport Tourism Conference in Calgary and again we’re going to be meeting with 20-30 national sport organizations about hosting events in our region. Not just in Red Deer but within our region. The idea would be to have those all over the place in working with the municipalities and facilities. Without the volunteers, there’s no chance of those happening.”

by Ian Gustafson

Central Sport receives $25,000 from Red Deer County

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