Volleyball Manitoba fighting to keep national team in Winnipeg

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This article was published 20/08/2015 (4020 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Volleyball Manitoba is attacking with its strong side in an all-out effort to keep the national women’s team in Winnipeg.

It’s a point of pride for John Blacher, who oversees all things volleyball in the province, but there’s an economic impact from the team nobody wants to lose either.

The national women’s team consists of 18 or more players, two full-time coaches and other staff members, including athletic therapists. Combined, they help spur spending of more than $2 million in the province each year and maintain 17 jobs, according to a report from Economic Development Winnipeg.

Cities bidding to lure the women volleyballers away include Richmond, B.C., Halifax and Milton, Ont. Typically, bids to host national teams are posted every four years, following the Olympic cycle. Many times, the commitments have been four eight or 12 years.

Winnipeg has been home to the women’s team since 1991 and will be until at least next year. The men’s team used to be here, too, but left for Gatineau, Que., in 2008 after an 11-year stay.

Losing the men’s team was a big blow and Blacher doesn’t want to see that happen again, so the Winnipeg bid offers much more than the status quo. Instead of continuing to be based out of the Investors Group Athletic Centre at the University of Manitoba, he’s proposing moving it to the soon-to-be-built state-of-the-art Canada Games Sport for Life Centre.

“The team could be a feature tenant in this new facility. At the U of M, we’re a partner on a big campus,” Blacher said.

“Sport Manitoba has been and is a very strong partner and supporter of the women’s national team. (Our bid) would further strengthen that relationship.”

Officials from Volleyball Canada were in town Thursday, touring the MTS Centre, the University of Winnipeg, Red River College and other facilities. They’ll do the same in the other cities and should make their decision known after the zone Olympic qualifying tournaments in December and January.

Jeff Hnatiuk, CEO of Sport Manitoba, said it would be difficult to replace the many benefits that accrue from the women’s volleyball program.

“From a sport-development perspective, any time you’ve got a national team program in your backyard, it’s a huge opportunity for that particular sport. There’s the impact on coaching development and the opportunity for young kids who can hopefully see our future Olympians (in their own city),” he said.

The volleyball program also does a good job with outreach, sending coaches and players out into the community to do clinics.

Construction on the Sport For Life building is scheduled to begin next month. Hnatiuk said it should be complete in April 2017, which will provide enough time to run a test event before it’s used for volleyball and basketball at the 2017 Canada Summer Games.

City councillor Brian Mayes (St. Vital) spoke on behalf of the city’s bid at a luncheon Thursday.

“This is a volleyball province. We want more of these sorts of teams, not lose the ones we have,” he said.

geoff.kirbyson@freepress.mb.ca