Vancouver lost out on a great opportunity to grow its global sports influence and be a part of a growing push in the sports and technology sectors when the anticipated Formula E race, known as an E-Prix, was canceled in April.
The cancellation of the highly anticipated event comes as a major loss for race fans, and to be brutally honest, it is a total cock up from the promoters, the One Stop Strategy (OSS) Group. The OSS Group canceled the E-Prix due to their inability to adhere to criteria requirements, which included acquiring the land approval and rights from the landowners needed to host the race around False Creek. Despite these concerns, tickets were still being sold.
Other speculations from critics of the race coming to Vancouver were based on the possibility that the Vancouver taxpayers would have to cough up cash for the hosting costs. A bad look for the mayor and city council during the re-election season, even though the motion to host the race was passed by nine out of ten votes. Racing fans’ hopes for having an E-Prix aren’t completely blown away, though, as the meeting to determine whether Vancouver and the promoters have the land and are eligible to host the race in 2023 is hosted on June 17.
The only official statement from the OSS Group has been an apology and their goal to bring the race to Vancouver for the 2023 calendar. The build-up on whether the land contracts will be ready for Vancouver to be accepted in 2023 has been met with some frustration from racing fans. Refunds for the 33,000 tickets already sold before the Group announced the race’s cancellation aren’t being distributed until the decision on whether Vancouver will host an E-Prix in 2023 has been made.
The loss of the E-Prix is a major setback for Vancouver and Canada. The 33,000 tickets sold showed promise for the city that it could create and deliver a larger net and platform for more sports franchises and events, a feat that has been proven difficult to accomplish, as the city has a tendency to drop the ball on promoting and supporting any professional sport unless it’s a losing NHL team that has yet to yield any championship results and remains the only Canadian team to not have won a Stanley Cup. If this event were the World Junior hockey tournament, the issues and critiques that plagued the E-Prix would not have been raised at all, and there probably would have been a riot if it had been canceled.
The Vancouver E-Prix would see a return of electronic autosport to Canada. Montreal hosted an E-Prix until 2017. It would also have been a return to racing for Vancouver and plucked the nostalgia heartstrings as the proposed track along the False Creek area and Canada Place was the same track used for the Molson Indy Vancouver race that closed in 2004. Automobile racing has been on a major promotional and financial rise, thanks to the growth of Formula 1. With the FIA looking to expand into the North American markets, Vancouver had, and potentially still has, a golden opportunity to be on the leading step for the growth in autosports across Canada, as well as open a great space for electric and greener technology to develop.
The race was going to be a major part of Vancouver’s 2022 Canada Day celebrations and would have been accompanied by a three-day festival called the Canadian E-Fest. The E-Fest would have included live music, esports tournaments, and a tech expo showing off future possibilities for the growing tech industries, and the performance in both domestic and racing electric cars. That’s not to mention the surge local vendors, artists, and tourism agencies would have received from international race fans.
It’s terrible that OSS Group couldn’t do their jobs and get the E-Prix organized and contracted properly. While there is still some hope that Vancouver can be slotted in for Formula E’s 2023 calendar, the deadline is at the end of this week, and there has been little to no news from either the OSS Group or its CEO Matthew Carter on whether the landowners have been satisfied.
Teryn Midzain is an English Major with ambitious goals to write movies and a full-time nerd, whose personality and eccentrics run on high-octane like the cars he loves. More importantly, Teryn loves sports [Formula One], and doesn’t care who knows. When not creating and running deadly schemes in his D&D sessions, Teryn tries to reach the core of what makes the romantic and dramatic World of Sports, the characters and people that make the events so spectacular.
