ALPINE:

Impending loss of GM warns of unsettling sponsorship future

Nov. 25, 2010 — The Canadian Press 

Alpine Canada is losing General Motors of Canada as a major corporate sponsor after the 2011 season, a loss that could impact the development of future ski racers.

Alpine Canada president Max Gartner is worried that with the Vancouver Winter Olympics over, other sponsors will also withdraw their support. That will leave the program scrambling to find money to produce results while grooming future stars.

"We're getting a lot of pressure from a lot of sponsors right now,'' Gartner said in an interview at this week's World Cup downhill race. "The typical thing is after the Olympics, people pull out.

"We are just fortunate we have a lot of contracts for one more year, but it's going to be tough going forward. I'm getting a sense we're not going to be fine (after) next year.''

Gartner wouldn't say how much GMC's deal was worth, or which other sponsors may be leaving.

GMC supports the World Cup team and is a sponsor of a series of development races across Canada.

Erik Guay, who won the World Cup crystal globe for super-G last season, said losing that money means the stream of young athletes will begin to dry up.

"If we don't get sponsorship, it's going to affect the next wave,'' said Guay. "We (the national team) are going to have our funding, we're going to have our program in place.

"Where they are going to cut is the younger guys. That's going to be detrimental to our development as a nation in future years.''

It costs Alpine Canada about $4.5 million a year to field a men's and women's team for the World Cup. More than half of that money comes from sponsors. Alpine Canada received $1.63 million from Own the Podium for 2010-11. That is down from the $2.1 million the team received in 2009-10.

"Our sport really relies on corporate support,'' said Gartner. "We don't have OTP funding that alone covers all our expenses.

"We need it (corporate money) to fill the rest to get the quality program for us to compete against the world.''

Gartner doesn't want to see history repeat itself.

After the 1988 Calgary Olympics corporate sponsorships also disappeared. The ski team managed to remain competitive, even winning a gold medal at the 1992 Olympics, until the veteran athletes began retiring.

"It took 13 years on the men's tour to win a race again,'' said Gartner.

"We don't want to get to that point again. I lived through that after '88, how we lost momentum.''

The current men's ski team is stocked with racers in the prime of their careers. OTP will continue to dish out money, so Alpine Canada will have funds to remain competitive for the next several years.
Gartner is already worried about what will happen after the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi.

"You start making some decisions because you have to tighten your belt,'' he said. "The results will come for a year or two down the road. It's basically the next generation is not going to be supported as much.

"These high-performance programs, it's not like you can turn them off, then two years later put some money in them and be ready.''

Guay, Manuel Osborne-Paradis, who won two World Cup races last season, and John Kucera, who won the downhill at the 2009 World Championships, all advanced through Alpine Canada's development system at roughly the same time.

"It just goes to show what funding and the proper coaching can do,'' said Osborne-Paradis. "We have become some of the best ski racers in the world.

"It's not rocket science.''

Gartner said sponsors like GMC helped rebuild the team and made Alpine Canada competitive again.

"We're in the game again,'' he said. "We can seriously think about winning races. The next generation of skier got inspired in Vancouver.

"We wouldn't have been that competitive again if it wasn't for corporate Canada. Now my plea is, don't jump off. I know what it's going to do to the program.''

Canadian skiers failed to win a medal at the Olympics, but Gartner doubts that would have made a difference in companies staying with the program.

Success on the World Cup makes Alpine Canada attractive to future sponsors. But Gartner said he won't use the possibility of reduced funding to push his athletes.

"We don't drag the athletes into this,'' he said. "They need to focus on performance.''

Guay wonders what happened to the euphoria generated by the Vancouver Games.

"It's sad but I guess it's expected after the Olympics,'' he said. "With an Olympics in Canada I was kind of hoping companies would be pumped about it and excited, maybe inspired.

"Right now it seems like we are going to lose some sponsors.''  S-Magazine