10. Bids for 2023 and 2024 Events and beyond

[pennypham]

Thanks Vlad’s for your insight and we are fully aware of the fact of comparatively higher hotel room rate due to its location as the heart of Metro Vancouver area with only 25 minutes from Vancouver Airport and 20 minutes to downtown Vancouver by convenient Skytrain which makes easier and more convenient for all players and spectators.

We are glad to update that in order to support our bidding the Delta Hotel Burnaby Conference Center as agreed to lower the rate to $246/night for both Standard and Deluxe 2 Queens Bed Room from previous $275 for Standard and $290 for the Deluxe.

In addition they are working on how much they could lower for the Tournament Hall rental and ANY savings from previous quote will be added into the Canadian Open Prize.

We sincerely wish all voting members take all factors into consideration when making decisions.

Thanks again for your consideration and support.

WIM Ngoc Pham (Penny)
Founder & Head Coach
Penny Chess Club
www.pennychessclub.ca

[Vladimir Drkulec]

First of all I think we have 3 very good bids which makes it tricky to choose. Personally I will be voting for the Vancity, Surrey bid for the following reason:
1) I think it would be nice to have the event in Vancouver as BC didn’t host it for more than 10 years and Vancouver even longer than that so it would be good time.
2) When comparing accommodation in other bids it is either not practical or too expensive. I think it makes no sense to get a cheaper rate with a hotel 3.5 km away as in the Guelph bid only to have to offer shuttles. Especially, as there are much closer hotel options (presumably more expensive). With Burnaby bid the rate is quite a bit more expensive. Again, there are cheaper accommodations but they are 20 minutes driving distance away.
3) The Guelph bid looks very nice in terms of prize fund being high but it relies on attaining sponsorship which of course might be possible but is uncertain.
4) With the Burnaby bid, the Canadian Open starts on the evening of the last round of the Canadian Youth. That could save the organizers some costs but it will be more difficult for the Youth players who play both events, additionally, as we found in Calgary this year when we had the same schedule, that created a problem with hotel accommodation as many rooms used for CYCC were not yet free for the Canadian Open attendees.

In any case, I am sure that whoever wins the bid will have a great Canadian Open!

Hal has sent me an email and is a bit miffed at what he sees as disrespect towards the guarantees (100% of entry fees) built into the bid. The committee is so confident in their fundraising that they have offered to have the CFC collect their entry fees for the Canadian Open and hold it in trust. My understanding from speaking with Mahmud is that they already have enough sponsorship to cover everything in the bid. Remember that Guelph/Waterloo is a high tech hub and they have sponsorships from some very well known companies any one of which would be impressive by itself. The community is really coming together. If Hal Bond says that they have the money, they have the money.

[Vladimir Drkulec]

These are all three good bids. Whichever bid is accepted will be even better by the time these events take place. I am not favouring one bid over another by relaying what Hal said.

[Vlad Rekhson]

Hal has sent me an email and is a bit miffed at what he sees as disrespect towards the guarantees (100% of entry fees) built into the bid. The committee is so confident in their fundraising that they have offered to have the CFC collect their entry fees for the Canadian Open and hold it in trust. My understanding from speaking with Mahmud is that they already have enough sponsorship to cover everything in the bid. Remember that Guelph/Waterloo is a high tech hub and they have sponsorships from some very well known companies any one of which would be impressive by itself. The community is really coming together. If Hal Bond says that they have the money, they have the money.

I see no reason to mistrust that. In the original bid no specific sponsors names were mentioned that is why I assumed that the sponsorship was still being sought. I think it is great that they have an amazing amount of sponsors to guarantee a large prize fund. Personally, I would still prefer the Surrey bid due to hotel availability/cost and the fact that I would like to see Vancouver receive a Canadian Open sooner rather than later. However, if that happens I hope the Guelph tournament can still happen in 2026, or if Guelph wins the bid for 2025 a Vancouver event is still possible in 2026!

[Michael Barron]

Thank you, Vlad!

Hopefully, the executive will approve 2024 Canadian Closed and Canadian Women Closed bids and announce the events officially soon...

[Vladimir Drkulec]

I will be supporting the JtM/Van City bid because I said I would long before the other two bids materialized. It is a good bid. If any of the bids were only bids, I would be happy to support them. It is amazing that we have three bids in one year that are so good.

[Alina Calota]

I will be supporting the JtM/Van City bid because I said I would long before the other two bids materialized. It is a good bid. If any of the bids were only bids, I would be happy to support them. It is amazing that we have three bids in one year that are so good.

Where is the link where we can vote? Thank you.

[Vladimir Drkulec]

Where is the link where we can vote? Thank you.

It should be open later tonight.

[Lyle Craver]

That may have been because on the very same dates BC hosted the "2004 Western Canadian Open", the only time this championship appears in the database back to ~1996. Seems there was a lot of unpleasantness around this whole affair from (over?)application of rules to reject bids to protest events. I'm reminded of the difficult job our executive does for us especially in "lose-lose" situations with consequences that are unintended.

There was indeed a fair bit of 'bad blood' in BC concerning Kapuskasing getting a second back to back. This bad blood would NOT have been present had it been pretty much any location in southern Ontario that had decent connections to Toronto. As it was the then BCCF president felt an isolated Ontario location excluded anyone from BC or AB and in the event no one from SK or MB played Kapuskasing 2005 either. (Note: I was on the BCCF executive in 2005 BUT played no part in the event's organization. I turned up to watch the event and to visit the bookseller.) To put it bluntly Kapuskasing was not nor is now remotely as accessible as opposed to the Macdonald Block in Toronto or similar very central site.

[Michael Lo]

I have updated the Proposal Summary spreadsheet with the following changes:

1) Penny Club - Accommodation
Accommodation (lowest rate excl. tax per night): Onsite $246, Offsite at SFU $65

2) Guelph - Transportation from/to Primary Airport
Transportation by Car from/to Primary Airport: YYZ -52 mins, YKF - 26 mins
Public Transportation from/to Primary Airport: YYZ -2 hrs 16 mins, YKF - 1hr 59mins

3) Guelph - Skittles Room
Skittles 1 - At Quebec Street Mall (size not specified)

4) Guelph - COCC Prize Money
COCC Total Prize Money - 100% Entry Fee Guaranteed (Est. $60000+)

Spreadsheet Link - https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets...it?usp=sharing

All three are excellent proposals. My preference goes to the two BC bids, same reason with many others - BC didn’t host it for more than 10 years.

The Penny club's updated onsite room rate per night at $246 and an offsite exceptional rate of $65 is a game changer. It narrowed the onsite room rate difference down to $56 per night. The Burnaby venue is more central and more convenient for players to tour around Grater Vancouver after their games.The $65 SFU room would be an excellent choice for budget players that wants a private room, 3 to 4 players can carpool a cab or uber, sharing a rental car is also an idea. With just a 20 minutes trip, and the total cost would be substantially lower than any of the room rates posted.

I expect the 2025 CYCC/COCC to have 500-600 players. The Surrey venue is a bit stretched on space, with a maximum capacity of 500 players including using the lobby as an overflow playing area. The Barnaby venue has a maximum capacity of 600 players and should be able accommodate all of the players that wants to attend CYCC & COCC.

I lean towards Penny Club's bid mainly due to the larger venue capacity and more centralize location,

Cheers,

Michael Lo