Sportsplex pool needs Canada Games compromise

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Swimmers compete at an event in 2010 at Brandon’s six-lane Sportsplex Pool. Swimming Canada wants athletes to compete in an eight-lane pool at the 2017 Canada Summer Games.

In its bid for the 2017 Canada Summer Games, Brandon is two lanes short of a standard-size competition pool.

And while that’s become a real headache for the city’s bid operation committee, it was not an unexpected one.

"They’ve always said that," bid committee chairman Jeff Cristall said on Tuesday. "The standard is an eight-lane pool. Cities like Brandon don’t have everything you need."

Following a tour of Brandon last week, the Canada Games technical review committee has since informed the city’s bid operation committee that the sub-standard size of the Sportsplex is not what they’re looking for.

For national and international swimming competitions the minimum standard is an eight-lane, 50-metre pool. Swimming Canada has indicated that this is must be one of the requirements of hosting the Canada Summer Games.

The fact that the Sportsplex is a six-lane, 50-metre pool had to be overlooked by the Canada Summer Games committee the last time Brandon played host in 1997, as eight-lane requirements were already in place at that time.

Swimming Canada wants Canadian athletes to have the international competitive experience of eight lanes. Short of building a new pool — which Mayor Shari Decter Hirst says just "isn’t going to happen" — the bid committee and city administration will have to find a way to satisfy the needs of all parties involved, including the future needs of a growing community beyond the two-week Games.

"The pool is certainly our biggest challenge at this point," Decter Hirst told the Sun. "We’ve got a lot of people trying to figure out a solution.

"(But) it’s a little bit more flexible than usual circumstances, because we are the sole bidder."

Talks will continue over the next several months about how to find that compromise — perhaps Swimming Canada could be convinced to have smaller heats and be satisfied with six lanes for this event. However, if the Canada Games committee and Swimming Canada remain inflexible, Brandon will have some difficult choices to make.

The only permanent eight-lane pool in Manitoba is the Pan Am facility in Winnipeg. Already the high diving competition will be held in Winnipeg, and Cristall says it’s possible swimming competitions could be held there as well.

While that will certainly give swimming athletes a competitive experience, Cristall says that would also rob them of the overall Games experience that only the host community can provide.

"It comes down to competing interests," Cristall said. "If we move to the Winnipeg facility, we would not be providing athletes with much of an experience. It would more like a national swim meet. It might be a better pool option, but it might not be a better options for the athletes.

"Which competing interest will rule at the end of the day? The choice is not ours."

Another available option would be to lease a temporary pool and grandstands that would be set up somewhere outside the Sportsplex facility. The bid committee had made plans to move in a 25-metre temporary pool anyway, as a warm-up pool for competing athletes at the Sportsplex site.

But an eight-lane, 50-metre temporary pool would not only be much larger and have to meet more requirements, it would also be significantly more expensive.

"I suspect it would cost a lot," Cristall said, adding that he would prefer to take part of the provincial and federal money that comes with the bid and make alterations to the existing building.

Even if Swimming Canada decided to go with the six-lane structure, Cristall said alterations would be required at the Sportsplex.

Last year, the city and the province put up $1 million for immediate upgrades that were necessary for the aging pool to remain safe and viable for community use. Work on the pool mechanics, the pool liner and change rooms will all be completed later this summer, Decter Hirst says.

But Cristall says for the Sportsplex to be usable during the Games — that is, if the Canada Games committee decided to use the facility — the lighting, air and water quality would all have to meet current standards, as opposed to those standards in place when it was first built. It would also require enhanced seating for spectators.

"Any time you make any alteration to a structure like this, it costs a lot of money," Cristall said.

The Canada Summer Games committee also noted the city needs to give consideration to the athlete’s village situation. For the moment, the plan is still to use facilities provided by Brandon University.

"We’ll have to make sure we have enough rooms," Decter Hirst said.

If the university expands its student housing into the back half of the former Fleming School site, Decter Hirst says the city would also be interested in using that.

Cristall and Decter Hirst say the city will still go forward "regardless" and put in a bid for the Canada Games.

"We’ll just keep working with the powers that be to find a solution for the missing two lanes," Decter Hirst said.

Brandon’s bid committee will give a presentation to city council in the next three weeks.

The submission deadline for Brandon’s bid proposal is July 30.

» mgoerzen@brandonsun.com

Republished from the Brandon Sun print edition July 4, 2012