Last Saturday we helped our clients at ParticipACTION stage the first ever Sports Day in Canada.
Through partnerships with CBC and True Sport, ParticipACTION was able to mobilize over four hundred communities to stage 1,000 local events attended by over one million people. An unbelievable start!
From the day ParticipACTION CEO Kelly Murumets, CBC Sports President Scott Moore, and yours truly huddled to brainstorm this idea, I knew we were on to something big.
Like all great ideas, it wasn’t entirely new. CBC had pioneered the model for the sport celebration “day” with their Hockey Day and Soccer Day properties. Various amateur sports groups and affiliates had attempted to put a “Sport Week” together for a long time. But a great idea is only great if it gets executed.
Sports Day in Canada came along at the right time. On the heels of an unbelievable Paralympics and Olympics on Canadian soil, there is tremendous enthusiasm for sport in our society. Unfortunately, at the other end, sport enrollment has been declining over the past fifteen years. So, ‘Sports Day’ presented an opportunity to create a national holiday of sorts for sport.
Sports Day in Canada featured a week long series of events including ‘Jersey Day’ on Friday, September 17th. A modest success for its first year, the idea behind Jersey Day was to get all Canadians to wear a sports outfit to work, school, or play that day.
On the big day, I was in Kingston where the Queen’s-McGill varsity women’s basketball game was broadcast from. The game featured the 100th anniversary of women’s basketball in CIS sport. Now, that is an event worth celebrating on Sports Day.
Across the country there were a series of great events, such as Canada Games Day in Prince Albert. Part of the upcoming 2011 Halifax Canada Games’ efforts to spread the fever across the country.
In Iqaluit, they featured a hip-hop event hosted by a woman who calls herself “Lil Bear.” Free for youth 11 and up, the free event was a big attraction for aspiring boys and girls.
In Charlottetown, the Bluephins Aquatic Club held an Open House as they and other Swimming Canada clubs promoted their sport as an essential for all young Canadians.
Sports Day scored big with Canadians from coast to coast to coast. Sports Day scored big with the news media garnering 388 hits and over 46 million impressions. Sports Day scored big with many key stakeholders, like the Canadian Paralympic Committee, who were enthusiastically involved.
In the long run, Sports Day will be one of the biggest properties in Canada. But it wont be a true success if its just one day. Everyday should be “Sports Day” in this country.
Sport builds community.
Sport builds relationships.
Sport builds people.
It is one of the activities that can make us all healthier, happier, and richer. Because healthier people are smarter people. Healthier people are more motivated. Healthier people cost you and I less tax dollars!
So while SDIC #1 is in the books, I would ask all of you to help ensure that SDIC #2 happens today, not September 17, 2011.
So, join a team; sign up for a race; go buy a bat and ball. Get out and play some sort of sport today. Do it with friends, family, neighbours and co-workers. Do it with strangers. I guarantee you they wont be strangers for long.
Game On!