The intense mental and athletic achievement that is the Mind Over Mountain Adventure Racing (MOMAR) race will not return to Squamish this summer.
After four years in Squamish, MOMAR is moving to Burnaby - raising questions about Squamish's strategy for attracting and keeping outdoor recreation events.
Fuelling the debate is the District of Squamish's newly imposed $5-per-racer fee to maintain local trail networks. The issue has inspired a myriad of reactions from race organizers, racers, tourism agencies and trail maintenance volunteers.
Bryan Tasaka, MOMAR race director and event producer, on Monday (Jan. 10) said there were several reasons for moving the race. Burnaby is closer to his home in New Westminster, the City of Burnaby requires fewer permits and Tourism Burnaby offered a "significant" amount of money to convince Tasaka MOMAR belongs in Burnaby.
While Tourism Squamish doesn't have the resources to make offers to event organizers, it works with most Squamish signature events in a variety of capacities - assistance with site tours, meet and greets, securing hotel rooms, ticket sales and providing maps and community information.
"To date we have yet to approach event organizers operating their events in other communities to entice them to switch to Squamish," said Tourism Squamish manager Lesley Weeks. "Nor have we submitted any bids on events.
"Instead, we focus our limited resources on collaborating with the existing events in the community on how to grow their events or with the various organizers who approach us wanting to bring an event to Squamish."
Evidently that wasn't enough for Tasaka, who was unimpressed with the District of Squamish's new $5 rider fee added to each race entry.
Yet, only 10 months ago, Tasaka was raving about Squamish as an ideal location.
"Squamish has such amazing trail networks and terrain that it's an ideal location for an adventure race," said Tasaka in the lead-up to MOMAR 2010.
According to thesquamishreporter.ca, who interviewed Tasaka last week, Tourism's Burnaby's lucrative offer lured MOMAR away from Squamish but the $5-per-racer fee was the last straw.
The $5 fee is a relatively new district policy - it's a line item added to every racing fee, with the money going toward trail maintenance.
Tasaka, though, responded this week to the online article in a statement, saying, "Despite what this article may suggest, it was not the district's $5 racer fee that drove us out," although he went on to say that if an event brings enough economic benefit to the town, the fee should be waived.
"The MOMAR has an extensive marketing strategy that pushes out nationally and as a result over 85 per cent of the participants come from outside of the Sea to Sky Corridor," wrote Tasaka in his response.
"Most stay for two nights because of our mandatory Friday night registration and our infamous awards and after-party. In addition, we not only contract various local suppliers and staff, but all the weekend activities results in hundreds of room bookings, meals, and other shopping dollars infused into the community."
He suggested Squamish bring itself more in line with other communities' sport tourism strategies and waive the fee if the economic benefit is substantial.
"Many communities have a sport tourism strategy with a goal to attract various tournaments or races to their town. Often, bids need to be submitted and the best bid wins. Winning bids usually come with everything from complimentary facility charges, free accommodations, administrative support, and even a host fee," said Tasaka.
Weeks didn't disagree that events such as MOMAR generate tourism and said Squamish could adopt a sport tourism strategy if the resources were available.
"Festivals and events in general play a big role in promoting tourism in the communities that welcome them," she said. "If Tourism Squamish had the capacity and budget to attract more quality festivals and events in line with the Squamish brand, we would likely embark on building an event and sport tourism strategy. "
Tasaka suggested the $5 be waived as part of that strategy.
"Is it then reasonable for the District to consider waiving the permit fees if the economic spinoff is significant to the community?"
Tasaka also said the boundary issues in Squamish create hours of unnecessary work - Squamish requires 15 to 20 permits and permission letters whereas most communities only require two or three.
Cliff Miller, Test of Metal race organizer and Squamish Off-Road Cycling Association (SORCA) vice-president, told The Chief he thought Tasaka only left because Burnaby offered money.
"Why is he [Tasaka] hiding behind the $5 trail use fee?" he said. "Be honest, Bryan. You moved your event to Burnaby because there was an opportunity for yourself and your business to make more money than staying here in Squamish.
"If you were so enamoured with keeping the event in Squamish and not in maximizing profits, you would have told Tourism Burnaby, 'Thanks but no thanks, I already have a great community to hold this event in.'"
He acknowledged the economic benefits that come with the event are great, but none of that goes back into trails.
"That's great more people come to town and spend money on rooms, food and gas," he said. "Yes, that is money coming into the community; however, there is no mechanism in place for that money to get put back into the trails - our local trail system by and large has been built and maintained by vollies [volunteers]."
When asked whether he thought the fee would deter other events from coming to Squamish, Miller said, "Only if it is there's something wrong with their business model - the fees are going right back into the trails that they're using."
"I run a drywall business here. I have to pay for my inventory to be able to sell it to my customers," Miller said. "Why is an event organizer not required to pay for their inventory, which is the trails? What other business in the world can you go out and sell something that you don't have to pay for?"
He added that organizers don't even have to pay the user fee. The racer does.
However, Tasaka pointed out that for MOMAR 2010, he paid the fee for every racer because by the time he learned about the new fee, registration had already opened for the year.
Other race organizers and volunteers who have put time and effort into maintaining the trails said $5 from a race entry to maintain trails infrastructure wouldn't deter dedicated racers, only profit-driven event businesses.
As a SORCA board member for five years and the group's current trails director, Chris McCrum from CMCC Contracting is one of those volunteers.
When the Carpenter Son's Bridge, a key connector in the Test of Metal race and often MOMAR, had to be replaced last spring, he and several others stepped up to the task. He thinks the $5 racer fee is a good mechanism to make sure the trails are kept in good condition.
"I actually support the trail user fee and think it's a great idea, especially for events," he said. "From the public that's actually entering those events - if their entry costs $75 or $80, I don't think people will bat an eye at the $5.
"My opinion would be 'suck it up pay the $5.' People will gladly pay if the money is going to be reinvested into the infrastructure that makes those events possible."
McCrum is confident someone will be more than happy to take over the prime weekend normally dedicated to MOMAR.
"If they skip town, then hopefully someone else comes in and brings another great event to our fantastic infrastructure and trails here in Squamish," he said. "I'm sure their loss will be our gain at some point."
Avid mountain biker and local business owner Steve Klassen said it's this kind of attitude that might make Squamish less appealing to prospective events.
"Of course we love and appreciate the Bryan Raisers and the Cliff Millers who are locals here and run their events smoothly and efficiently in their hometown," said Klassen, "but we need to make sure we don't alienate outsiders by fuelling the locals-only fire.
"Without the outside tourism events like MOMAR bring, the diversity of businesses here in Squamish is not going to survive."
Klassen said he has spent more than 500 volunteer hours building trails this year, but that's thanks to economy-boosting events like MOMAR.
"As long as my business remains sustainable, I can put hours into the trail network for free! When my business doesn't flourish, I cannot spend time on the trail network."
He said Squamish needs to realize tourism potential, and suggested Tourism Squamish have something to offer when events consider Squamish as a venue.
"We do have an amazing place and Burnaby will not compare venue-wise," Klassen said. "But as a city I really think Squamish needs to wake up and decide that tourism is an emerging market of the future for this place and this is part of that.
"If I'm coming in from outside and want to consider holding an event in Squamish, what can they [Tourism Squamish] offer me? Do they have something to give because I know if I started going through and I had to get 15 to 20 permits, this would be the last place I'd do anything."
Bryan Raiser, Squamish councillor and Beyond the Valleycliffe of the Dolls race organizer, said he was glad this issue was bringing attention to the trail user fee.
"This is a great dialogue - it's showing that Squamish takes trail maintenance seriously. It's part of our infrastructure and it must be maintained," Raiser said. "The days of abusing our volunteers for profit is over."
An avid mountain biker, Raiser appreciates the complexities of organizing an event and said the $5 user fee shouldn't be a factor.
"Putting on an event is not easy and especially an event of that size, there's a lot of boundary issues to deal with, but the whole $5 thing is ridiculous," he said. "If that's why he's pulling out, that's unacceptable.
"It ticked me off really badly to hear him say that - it has the optics of him saying, 'Screw you, I'm not giving anything to the trails. I'm here to make money and I'm not giving a bloody cent to it.'"
Mayor Greg Gardner said council has no intention of reviewing the $5 user fee.
"We have to keep in mind that these races are businesses, and it costs money to maintain trails," he said.
"We thought $5 was reasonable."
He said District officials see it as their role to facilitate events that have an economic benefit, trails-based events included). He added, though, that some events don't have a huge impact because competitors just drive up from the Lower Mainland and leave afterward.
Neal Kindree, lifelong resident and two-time Test of Metal winner, said he has no problem paying a $5 user fee when he races and doesn't think Squamish should begrudge Tasaka for choosing the option that's best for him.
"It is important that Squamish recognize and appreciate Tasaka's efforts on furthering our reputation as the ultimate outdoor playground," Kindree said. "He has every right to move his event and we should not banish him for it. Tasaka has done great things for Squamish and we should thank him for his efforts."
Kindree has no doubt the weekend slot will be snatched up quickly.
"With MOMAR gone, it will only be a short wait before a new event fills the calendar."
