Marking the grand return of alpine skiing to Tremblant after a 40-year absence, attendance during the two legs of the World Cup far exceeded Alpine Canada's expectations.
• Also read: Double for the Italian Federica Brignone at the Tremblant World Cup
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The organizers had spoken of a crowd of 10,000 spectators for the first giant slalom on Saturday. Ultimately, organizers estimated the number of spectators at more than 15,000 people to attend the return of the World Cup, allowing Italian Federica Brignone to sign the first double of her career, who now has 23 victories to her name.
“We would have been happy with a crowd of 10,000 over the two days,” said Alpine Canada president and chief executive Thérese Brisson. We exceeded the 15,000 people mark on the two days.”
“It is extraordinary and we are in a position to make it even better by chasing the former Canadian hockey team guard who won silver at the 1988 Nagano Games and 2002 Salt Lake City Gold. I can’t wait to see what we can do in the future. Tremblant joins Killington in Vermont and Flachau in Austria as one of the largest crowds at the Women's World Cup.
Tremblant delivers the goods
If the dates of December 7th and 8th, 2024 were already in the 2024 FIS calendar, Brisson assures that nothing is set in stone. “We had to prove that we were capable of organizing a world championship in Tremblant,” she said. The message to be confirmed is now gone. We were pretty confident that there would be no problem, but the FIS would not have confirmed their return in 2024 if participation had not been good or if we had ended up on the grass.
“The feedback from the FIS and the athletes has been very positive,” added Brisson, who took over as head of Alpin Canada in 2020. “They appreciated the preparation of the course and were very impressed by the fans, who not only supported all the skiers.” Canadians. The athletes liked the noise they could hear from the starting gate and the proximity to everything.”
goals achieved
Brisson is convinced that the key objectives have been achieved. “We rely on a very strong technical team and wanted to put women's sport at the forefront. With the improvements we made, we also wanted to leave a legacy for the region’s ski community.”
If world champion Laurence St-Germain and two-time world gold medalist Érik Guay want a slalom stage to be presented in the future, the CEO has some reservations.
“We discovered that there are several obstacles (trees, rocks) that need to be covered and that there is also a stream,” she explained. The start is too flat to allow a slalom if you want to finish in the pedestrian village, and a mid-mountain finish is not ideal. Unlike a NorAm stage, in a World Cup we cannot move the finish for the next day's race.
“We are trying to find an option, especially to hold a parallel slalom, but it is not easy to pursue the native of Dollard-des-Ormeaux. We talked about it again on Sunday, but it’s not easy.”
Sustainable financial model
If Alpine Canada had a deficit from hosting a sprint World Cup in Lake Louise for years, the Tremblant event's financial results won't be written in red ink.
“We have found a viable financial model,” emphasized Brisson. We have reduced our operating costs and increased our revenue through ticket sales, sponsorships and a true partnership with Tremblant. Everyone involved benefited from their commitment. We were also able to count on the support of the three levels of government.”
Alpine Canada is interested in hosting a men's western speed event in the future. “We don’t know where or when yet, but the standard established in Tremblant is that of the future.”
Whistler and Panorama are the two options on the table. For the first station in spring, because experience shows that the snow conditions in November are not sufficient, and for the second station at the beginning of the season because the station is too busy in March.