Article content continued

Stuart Ballantyne, who was involved in Indy, the World Juniors, the Memorial Cup and more, and is now the senior vice-president of operations for the Edmonton Oilers, said Vancouver has always had “an amazing volunteer spirit and skilled event people.”

“Vancouver has been receptive to new events and has built a good understanding of how to work with events to achieve great results for the citizens, fans, volunteers, event producers and various civic departments,” he said.

The Olympics, however, raised the bar and put Vancouver on the world stage like never before, showing that the city had the ability and facilities to host almost any sport. The event was “a massive springboard,” said Ty Speer, the president and CEO of Tourism Vancouver.

“The power of the Olympics to open people’s eyes to what the city is all about was pretty unparalleled,” he said. “There’s not really anything like it.”

Photo by SAEED KHAN / AFP/Getty Images

Since then, the city has hosted some high-level events, such as the 2012 Canadian Women’s Open Golf Tournament, last summer’s immensely popular FIFA Women’s World Cup and the Canada Sevens tournament in March.

Speer estimated that the current value of sports tourism in Vancouver is likely in the tens of millions of dollars, and will increase in coming years.

“It is really exciting times for Vancouver right now,” Rob Newman, president and CEO of Sport B.C. and CEO of the upcoming 2016 Americas Masters Games in Vancouver. “A lot of people value the sport experience and the excitement that comes from the sport experience.”