Agreement rides to the financial rescue of Olympic Oval in Calgary

CALGARY - The Olympic Oval in Calgary will remain the home of Canada's long-track speedskating team for the next 20 years, thanks to an agreement between WinSport Canada, the University of Calgary and the federal government.

The Oval fell into financial trouble early last year. Speedskaters panicked over the prospect that they could not get enough training in prior to the Olympic Games in Vancouver and Whistler, B.C., in February.

A $530,000 cash injection raised by WinSport and Own The Podium kept the ice in the Oval for Olympians, but fear remained over the long-term future of the Oval after the 2010 Games.

Minister of State for Sport Gary Lunn has endorsed in principle a proposal from WinSport and the university that would ensure a consistent source of funds for the Oval, which requires $3 million per year to operate.

WinSport covers two-third of the cost and the university the remainder. WinSport, formerly the Calgary Olympic Development Association, pays for its share with interest generated by investments from the 1988 Olympic endowment fund.

That fund took a reported $40-million beating in the recent financial crisis. Now at over $70 million, the agreement would allow WinSport to draw about $2 million from the principal annually over the next 20 years, which is how much longe the 22-year-old Calgary Oval is expected to last.

"It's huge," WinSport CEO Guy Huntingford said Monday. "And not just for us."

Canada's long-track speedskating team has won 16 medals at the last three Olympics, which is more than in any other sport. Canadians won five, including two gold, in Vancouver.

The federal government still has to sign off on the agreement once it leaves lawyers' hands, but the director general of Speed Skating Canada was ecstatic over the development.

"This is fantastic news for the Oval, fantastic news for our sport and our athletes," Jean Dupre said. "Last year, we barely were able to get the necessary support required to operate the Oval for the nine months of ice we required to prepare our team properly for the Games.

"Now we know we can put together a long-term plan. There were a lot of uncertainties. Now those have been alleviated and we can go back to our long-term planning and make sure we have what it takes to continue being as successful as we have been in the last three Games."

Canada's Olympic multi-medallists Catriona Le May Doan, Cindy Klassen, Kristina Groves and Clara Hughes have all trained at the Calgary Oval, which has some of the fastest ice in the world because of altitude and climate.

The national long-track speedskating team has been based in Calgary since the Oval's construction for the '88 Olympics.

The Oval in Richmond, the site of speedskating for the 2010 Olympics, will not continue as a long-track venue, but will be turned into a multi-purpose recreational facility.

The draw on the 1988 endowment fund will be replenished by any interest it does make in its recovery, Huntingford said.

"The intent is the fund continues to grow albeit with the proviso in terrible years like we just had, you're not sitting there saying 'We can't operate,"' he explained. "Our funding model is to fund the facility, to make sure, for lack of a better term, there's ice in the Oval."

Huntingford says he made the proposal to Lunn in December and received a favourable reply just prior to the opening ceremonies of the Olympics on Feb. 12.