Bump, set, spike: youth volleyball national championships draw thousands to Edmonton

The best of the best in teenage volleyball are in Edmonton for their national championships and officials say it’s generating tens of millions of dollars in economic spinoffs.

The Volleyball Canada Youth National Championships at the Edmonton EXPO Centre is taking place over a 12-day period, broken down into age different groups.

“We have three events of three days back-to-back with check-in days in-between,” said Brad Moyer, chair of the National Indoor Championships committee.

Played in a festival style, the tournaments features more than 3,000 matches across 56 volleyball courts and include age brackets ranging from 14U to 18U. The province said 443 teams are from Alberta.

“We have 1,260 teams who are participating with over 15,000 athletes.”

The beginning of the tournament from May 16 to 18 saw games between the under-14 boys and under-15 for both boys and girls: in that age category, there were 268 teams of girls alone.

May 20 to 22 saw matches between the under-17 girls and under-18 for both genders. This weekend, the under-17 boys are up along with the under-16 boys and girls.

In addition to the players, Moyer said there are 350 referees from across Canada and the U.S. and about 22,000 spectators taking up 33,000 hotel room nights in the region over the course of the tournament, which he said is the largest single amateur sport event in Canada.

“For the kids, it’s a tremendous event for them not only to be able to play teams from other provinces, but to be in a venue this large and to to experience this level of play with this many people here.

“It ends up being, usually, the most memorable experience of an athlete’s career — participating in these national championships.”

The economic impact off of the championships: between $30 and $48 million, depending on who you ask.

“To say it’s a big event is a bit of an understatement,” said Cindy Medynski, the sport and culture events director at Explore Edmonton. “We see over 30,000 out-of-town visitors come in for this event between athletes, coaches, officials and spectators. So it really does, take over the whole city.”

Outside the EXPO site, several food trucks outside are keeping patrons fed.

“This is one of our bigger events for the year,” said Terry Sept, owner of the Smokehouse BBQ & Black Sheep Eatery food trucks.

Sept said on a busy day, he feeds between 400 and 500 people out of each food truck. He added that the Smokehouse BQQ trucks alone goes through 500 to 700 pounds of meat in three days at nationals.

“It has been insanely busy. They’ve got three different rotations on the tournament, so the first day is usually a little soft, but then we get hammered hard for two days in a row.”

Having a day between each of the three phases of the tournament allows the vendors to catch their breath, he said.

“We do a lot of festivals and that sort of thing but this one — for a 12 day run — is pretty huge.”

Medynski said it’s not just restaurants, hotels and bars that see a business boost: people are also using transit, taxis and Ubers.

“Every business that touches the tourism industry is impacted by this event.”

One of the parent spectators, Sarah Claassen, came from Winnipeg to support her daughter’s team, who she said enjoyed the World Waterpark at West Edmonton Mall during their down time.

She has been impressed with options to get around Edmonton. Balking at the $85 fee for an Uber to get from the airport to her hotel in Sherwood Park, the mom tried out the city’s 747 transit route to the Century Park LRT instead and feels more people should know about the option.

“So I went and took the $5, transit bus and took your light rail train system, which was excellent,” she said. “So that actually is sort of the highlight of my trip so far. I mean, obviously seeing my daughter is amazing,” she laughed.

The Volleyball Canada Youth National Championships run until Sunday.

Single day passes to attend this weekend’s matches are $20 for adults, $15 for seniors and free for kids under 18. They can be purchased online or at the on-site box office (no cash.)

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