Here’s How Much a Huge Two-Day Sporting Event Will Cost Mississauga This Month
Published December 9, 2018 at 4:44 am
A big event is coming to Mississauga.
And it’ll no doubt make local hockey fans extra excited this holiday season.
The City of Mississauga will be hosting the Rogers Hometown hockey tour on December 22 and 23 at Celebration Square. The event is part of a season-long tour that is taking place from October to April to celebrate Canada’s hockey heritage.
The festival is free and will have a variety of family-friendly activities, guest performances, musical acts, storytelling, fan hubs and a Kids Zone. For those wanting to be more physically active, there is the opportunity to skate on the Scotiabank community hockey rink, where attendees can interact with NHL Alumni.
For those who are ultimate hockey fans and want an autograph from an alumni, they can check out the Rogers Fan Hub where there will be NHL alumni present to take autographs and participate in some fun games.
And while the festivities are exciting, they will cost the municipality some money–and fortunately, a brand new tax is funding part of the event.
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The cost of running the event is $85,000 and will be supported by the City of Mississauga through various funds. An amount of $50,000 was allocated from the recreation sport tourism attractions account. This amount will be used towards operations of the event such as policing costs, security, equiptment, staffing, waste management and technical support.
The other $35,000 was recently approved by council to be transferred from the Municipal Accommodation Tax (MAT)-Tourism Projects Reserve Fund (known more colloquially as the hotel tax). The $35,000 will be put towards marketing of the event, and will cover items such as banners, pre-promotion giveaways and signage at local hockey associations and City recreation facilities.
The MAT/hotel tax is a recent tax that was implemented on April 1 of this year. The funds come from a 4 per cent tax that is applied to stays for a continuous period of 30 days or less. The MAT is expected to generate $9.8 million in revenue for the city on an annual basis. The revenue will be reinvested into the culture, activities and events that promote Mississauga. The Rogers Hometown Hockey Tour is one of the earliest events that has gone through the allocation process.
And since hockey is a huge deal, it’s unlikely that residents would take umbrage with this use of tax dollars.
As far as other features go, Hometown Hockey attendees can also enjoy beverages and food complementary of Tim Hortons and Giuseppe Pizzeria. Other partners in the event are local hockey leagues and associations such as the Mississauga Steelheads.
The end of the festival is on Sunday and concludes with a big and important NHL broadcast of the Toronto Maple Leafs taking on the Detroit Red Wings. The hosts of this game will be Ron MacLean and Tara Slone.
What’s important in regards to the event itself and the livestream, is that it helps put Mississauga on the map as a tourism place where people want to be and visit. The broadcast will also be a great opportunity for Mississauga to showcase the city as a designation for the over 1 million viewers and national audience.
Some of the signage for the Home Town Hockey has already been put up around the City.
It will be exciting to see how the weekend unfolds!
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