Niagara 2022 Canada Summer Games brought $350 million into community, says chair

The chair of the 2022 Canada Summer Games hosted by Niagara Region was a cash cow for the local municipalities, bringing some $350 million into local business, says the chair.

In an interview with St. Catharines radio station, 610-CKTB, the games chair, Doug Hamilton, himself an Olympic medalist rower in 1984 and World Champion rower in 1985, said, “The economic activity generated from the games was more the $350-million.”

It wasn’t just the local businesses that felt a big cash boost, especially coming off the heels of the pandemic, but the games themselves ran with a surplus of between $3 and $3.5 million.

Hamilton credited an abundance of sponsorship for the games from businesses and corporation, as well as an unexpected boom in attendance and merchandise purchases, with the unexpected surplus cash.

That extra cash will go into a legacy fund, set aside for future sporting events hosted in Niagara.