Universiade Bid Enters Home Stretch

20/04/2009 02:44

Committee chairman Eric Newell admits to feeling nervous as decision day nears

Eric Newell, the veteran CEO of oilsands megaprojects, is hardly the type to get the jitters. But the former University of Alberta chancellor confesses he's a tad nervous these days in the final countdown to Edmonton's bid for the 2015 summer Universiade games.
The bid committee's dream to put Edmonton and the university on the international stage again has been five years in the making, and it faces the ultimate test in the next few weeks.

So, yes, says chairman Newell, "I'm a bit nervous." Outside Newell's office on the U of A campus, photographs of the 27 members of the Federation Internationale du Sport Universitaire (FISU) are taped on the wall. Edmonton has to win over a majority of these people and, on April 30, five of them will arrive here for an all-important site visit.

They'll inspect the city's sports facilities and assess the depth of community support for the games, says Newell, noting that some facilities were built when Edmonton hosted the 1983 Universiade.

This is a key opportunity for the bid committee to impress the FISU delegates before the final decision is made in Brussels on May 23.

Newell is determined to show the city at its best. "We have to do a first-class job," he says. But that won't be hard.

The city's stock of great pools, stadiums and field houses from previous sporting events is a key plank in its bid, says Newell -- and that's not counting an ambitious, $400-million plan for a new pool, a new sports centre and an athletes village on the university's South Campus.

But the competition is tough, especially from the Korean city Gwangju, which also bid for the 2013 games but lost to Kazan, Russia. Also bidding is Taipei, Taiwan.

Edmonton has to break a 20-year tradition of alternating between Asia and Europe as a site for the games, which are the world's second-largest sporting event after the Olympics.

But Edmonton has been there before.

More from the Edmonton Journal.

SWIVEL HIPS SAYS:

Good luck to Eric Newell and his ‘bid’ committee. It would be really nice to see Edmonton get the 2015 world university games (Universiade). The city hosted the 1983 games, which are widely considered second only to the Olympic games.