By Adam Donnelly

Tournament Capital earning its nickname over the long weekend

May 22, 2018 | 5:07 PM

KAMLOOPS — We’re often bombarded with the City’s Branding, but over the long weekend, Kamloops demonstrated why it’s known as the Tournament Capital of Canada. A 165-team soccer tournament, a 50-team slow-pitch tournament, and a host of other activities, including minor baseball, skydiving, and target shooting brought thousands of visitors into the River City; with that many people in town, the economic benefit can be counted in the millions.

The Victoria Day Long Weekend is historically one of the busiest in terms of events in the Tournament Capital.

“May comes with the slow-pitch tournament at the Tournament Capital Ranch, the Slurpee Cup, we had baseball happening at McArthur Island,” the City’s Business Operations and Events Supervisor, Sean Smith explained. “We had a lot of venues that were running at full-tilt.”

The annual KYSA Slurpee Cup tournament draws between 160 to 170 teams to pitches around the city each year.

Question of the Week

Have you made changes to your holiday shopping or travel plans because of rising costs?

20h ago

One Man's Opinion

COLLINS: The icon who is Taylor Swift

Nov 17, 2024

Two and Out

PETERS: Business owners shouldn't be held responsible for nuisance calls

Nov 15, 2024

“Somewhere in the neighbourhood of 3,000 participants,” KYSA Executive Director Keith Liddiard told CFJC Today. “That brings along coaches and assistant coaches, managers, parents, grandparents, siblings. It’s a busy time in Kamloops for soccer, and for a lot of other sports that going on at the same time.”

Out at the Tournament Capital Ranch, the Big O Memorial Slo-pitch tournament was being held, with organizers bringing the majority of the 50 teams from out of town.

“We all had a friend from Vancouver, his name’s Olivier Morrow. He passed away three years ago, so we took it on to start a tournament in his memory,” slow-pitch tourney organizer Troy Lutz explained. “I’m from Edmonton and Kamloops seemed to be a good place because we could get the BC guys and the Edmonton guys all to join together.”

For both KYSA and the organizers of the Big O Memorial Tournament, the facilities available in the city are part of what makes these events so successful year after year.

According to Lutz: “The scenery is beautiful. We don’t have the opportunity to hit into the mountains like this. Everyone who comes, the first thing they say is how great the facility is.”

Liddiard agrees: “The teams love coming here, they love playing on all grass fields. That’s very uncommon now on the coast for tournaments, you’re usually playing on artificial surfaces. We’re really lucky, the facilities are first class.”

And with that many people flooding the city’s hotels and eating, shopping, and relaxing in Kamloops, the economic benefits from a weekend like this one are quite significant.

“Based on our current economic impact analysis that we did in 2017, we value the leisure visitor at $188 per day,” Tourism Kamloops Communications Director Monica Dickinson explained. “Based on these participants here, when you look at a weekend of three full days [that’s] $1.4 million in economic impact, just from the sports tournament hosting side of things.”