Non-profit sports groups in Coquitlam that have or want to organize provincial, national or international tournaments in the city this year may get some financial relief.
On Monday, city council reinstated its sport hosting grant program after receiving a number of complaints that the cash had been axed last December.
"It was something that we shouldn't have cut at budget time," Coun. Doug Macdonell, chair of the city's recreation committee, told The Tri-City News yesterday. "It is not a lot of money but it was primarily for large tournaments that came into the city that brought a lot of outside people in."
Funding for the grant program has been cut in half - from $20,000 in 2004 to $10,000 last year - since it started; however, the city has never spent more than $6,000 a year on the program over the past five years, said Lori MacKay, Coquitlam's general manager of parks, recreation and culture services.
This year's $10,000 will come from the parks department, which is projecting a small surplus in its operating budget this year, MacKay wrote in her report to city council.
Macdonell has been pushing for ways to make Coquitlam and Town Centre Park - home to a half-dozen grass and artificial fields - an economic development driver with national and international events.
Next year, from Aug. 21 to 27, the 2012 Canadian Women's Open Golf Tournament will be at the Vancouver Golf Club, an LPGA tour stop that's expected to attract 126 million television viewers. On a smaller scale, Coquitlam is also considering its bid for the 2016 B.C. Summer Games.
