Tournament a cash cow for some businesses
Richard Gleeson
Northern News Services
Yellowknife (May 16/01) - Super Soccer is a hit with local businesses as well as the kids who participate in it.
The annual tournament drew 68 out-of-town teams to Yellowknife over the weekend, swelling the city's 20 and under population by roughly 650 people.
It's the busiest weekend of the year for some businesses, like the Subway sandwich shop, which sold more than 2,400 submarine sandwiches from Thursday to Sunday.
"We were very busy," said store manager April Fraser.
"We did probably twice as much business as we normally do on Friday."
Recognizing the business Super Soccer generates, retailers in the Old Airport Road area provided complimentary bus service for the 1,500 participants involved in the tournament.
NWT Soccer Association president Bill Gowans of Inuvik coached a team of nine Grade 6 girls.
"They all had $150-$200 each to start out with and they were all broke by Sunday afternoon," Gowans said.
Fast food, clothes and shoes were the main items the team took back, he said.
Bata Athletes World store manager Jonathan Hamilton said Super Soccer is topped by only Raven Mad Daze and Christmas in terms of business at the Centre Square Mall sport shoe and clothing store.
Hamilton said the store did about 60 per cent more business than a normal weekend.
"I'd say about 80 per cent bought hats and visors, but there were a lot of clothes and some shoes too," said Hamilton.
Tournament organizers estimated the teams that flew in from as far away as Iqaluit spent a total of $250,000 getting to the city.
Wal-Mart manager Rodd Olmstead said the tournament definitely had a beneficial impact on his business.
"It definitely brings people in," Olmstead said, because the spring trade show was also a draw. Olmstead noted the trade show also drew traffic away from some local businesses he visited over the weekend.
Wal-Mart, Super 8, Mark's Work Warehouse and Dairy Queen contributed to the complimentary bus service.
Neither the Chamber of Commerce nor city hall has documented the economic impact of the event, but organizer Mike Beauregard said in terms of the people it draws into the city it is second only to the Arctic Winter Games.
Twenty-four of the out-of-town teams stayed at hotels.
Beauregard said the tournament receives little in the way of government support. The NWT Soccer Association, which runs the tournament, receives $25,000-$30,000 in seed funding through Sport North.
The event is run entirely by volunteers, and relies heavily on fund-raising by individual teams.
Gowans said the event enjoys plenty of support from local businesses, but not much from the city itself. He said he wrote the city in the past asking it to support the event but received no reply.
