Editorial: Play up youth vibe in the Bay

The Matahui School AIMS GAMES team. Photo / Jamie Troughton

School sports days have come a long way since I was little.

Our days consisted of mainly track and field events since our school didn't have a swimming pool.

Inter-school competitions were rare, but still brought out the rivalry and school pride.

I was shocked to learn 7500 young sportspeople with their 3000 coaches and supporters have travelled from all over the country to take part in the week-long 11th annual NZCT Aims Games tournament that kicked off on Sunday.

The Aims Games have more competitors than the Glasgow Commonwealth Games, which had 6500 athletes.

The Bay of Plenty Times reported last week that an economic impact study will be conducted to work out how valuable the tournament is to the city.

Tauranga City Council's new strategic events manager Pip Loader said: "We already know the amazing positive impact the Aims Games has on the competitors but we also keen to weigh up how the event enhances our city."

Tauranga Mayor Stuart Crosby said: "[Aims Games] is also a chance to showcase our beautiful city and provides a significant economic benefit to the region. We are excited to welcome so many visitors to Tauranga and know they will be looked after very well while they are here."

The obvious benefits will be, of course, to the accommodation sector but is the city really doing enough to capitalise?

I see a real opportunity here.

We need to entice participants in to our central city between competitions and at the end of each day. Could we turn the event into a real festival? Could we fund concerts, cultural performances, street performances, food markets, competitions and flash mobs on The Strand?

Could our city eateries get together and offer bulk discounts to Aims Games participants? I know tourism operators such as Fernland Spa and Adrenaline Forest are offering discounts, but let's do it on a large scale. Let's inject our city with the vibe and youthful exuberance of these thousands of children.

I believe we could show these visitors an awesome time in the Bay.