The Heritage Classic held in Regina last fall was truly a once in a lifetime event many people will never, forget, and now it is up for a prestigious national award.
The Canadian Sport Tourism Alliance organizes the PRESTIGE awards every year, and has named the Heritage Classic a finalist for Canadian Sport Event of the Year in the greater than one-million-dollar budget category.
Regina Exhibition Association Limited President and CEO Tim Reid said it’s a major achievement for the city.
“To be recognized among the very best sporting events that have happened in our country is such an honour, and I think such a distinction to be part of that shortlist.”
Reid said their nomination went through an evaluation process before it was named a finalist.
“You submit everything from guest experience results, to financial data, to just a summary of the overall event,” Reid said. “The analysis is relatively numbers-based I think on one side of it, because it really is all about supporting tourism and economic impact, and then on the other side, I think there’s always something subjective around it.”
Reid said Regina has a really good case, as this event boosted the local economy across southern Saskatchewan.
“Almost 70% of everybody that attended that event actually didn’t live in Regina, which is just unbelievable, and a large portion of those were actually from outside of the province, it wasn’t just folks from Saskatchewan traveling here,” Reid said. “Although there was lots of local fans, what was really special from a tourism standpoint is it filled every hotel really from all of within our city, but also across southern Saskatchewan.”
Also nominated in the category is the 2019 Memorial Cup in Halifax and the Canada Winter Games in Red Deer. The awards will be presented on March 25th in Edmonton.
