If you are from the native English-speaking world, you don’t need to be told about D-Day, particularly not this week. And if you happen to have tickets for the 2014 World Equestrian Games in Normandy this August, you will have ample opportunity to continue the learning of the Normandy landings up close and personal. Caen is a hop and skip from Juno Beach, Omaha Beach and the others. I actually visited Juno Beach last summer when I was doing my Normandy re-con. It’s such a peaceful, fisherman-y part of France that on a sunny summer day it’s hard to imagine the carnage that was the scene there 70 years ago. I have always been a fan of multi-dimensional travel – a little culture with my wine and cheese, that sort of thing. If you are heading to WEG and have a morning or afternoon to spare, a trip to those beaches to pay some respect and to connect with our heritage would be time well spent.
And if you haven’t bought WEG tickets yet, it’s not too late! I was writing my first of a handful of WEG previews this weekend, and in my research I thought I should go on the Normandy 2014 site and see if the rumours of ‘everything sold out’ were true. They’re not. In fact, you can still get tickets to the biggest events (at least as far as I’m concerned they are the biggest): the Dressage Freestyles, Eventing Cross Country and Show Jumping team and individual finals. The prices are so reasonable that in a few cases they are almost unbelievable. A morning or afternoon session of the team Dressage will set you back all of five Euros. That’s 20 Euros to watch the entire team competition (which I don’t necessarily recommend – it’s one bay after another busting the same moves after a while). The Jumping team final is a very worthwhile endeavour, and it’s slightly cheaper than an evening at Cirque Du Soleil, at 72 Euros for the cheapest seats. Yes, yes. I know. There is a matter of plane tickets, transport and sleeps. But that’s what the piggy bank and hammer are for, right?
What I find rather odd is that the events which HAVE sold out are hardly those that one would expect to have sold out. The Endurance, for instance. At 12 Euros a pop the price is right, and the view at Le Mont St. Michel is not to be beat. But still. I’ve been to three WEGs and I don’t recall seeing anything resembling crowds anywhere near the Endurance tracks. And don’t tell me it’s because the world’s media is descending on the feeding frenzy of controversy. First of all, most of the world couldn’t care less. Second of all, journalists get media credentials, which has no effect on ticketing. The conspiracy theorist in me is whispering in my ear that the tickets have all been bought up by the Group VII countries so that no one sees their dastardly deeds…
The other puzzling sold out events are the Eventing dressage and Eventing show jumping (cross country still a sweet available deal at 34 Euros). Eventing dressage. Let me see. I’m the journalist covering it and even I give most of it a miss. Eventing dressage is possibly the only WEG event where bad performances are more interesting to watch than the winning ones. I understand the venue for the Eventing dressage at Haras du Pin is petite, so I suppose it’s possible that with so few seats it can sell out – especially when you consider that the home team French are pretty strong – even medal contenders – in the discipline. But the Eventing Show Jumping is also sold out, and it’s at the main stadium in Caen. That means there is a substantial percentage of WEG fandom who think the Eventing Jumping is more exciting than the Dressage Freestyles and Show Jumping finals. I’m chalking it up to the French spectators. No one outside of France understands the French.
Anyway, if you don’t have a trip planned for this summer, I highly recommend an adventure to the land of apples (with which killer calvados and cider are made), WW II history, and big cuddly Percherons. I’m still waiting for my WEG 2002 in Spain experience to be surpassed. I’m expecting Normandy to make a good run at it.
Speaking of D-Day and WEG, there is another D-Day coming up: Tuesday’s FEI announcement regarding the allocation of the host city forWEG 2018. Will we be washing down poutine with wine in Bromont, or chasing fried chicken with Bourbon in Lexington? (Or….is that big push by Qatar to host WEG 2022 going to get suddenly ratcheted up to 2018 because Bromont doesn’t have the cash and Lexington never wanted it anyway?) A colleague of mine learned a few salient details about the Bromont bid a few weeks ago – straight from the Bromont office’s mouth, as it were. We knew the feds (Mr. Harper and Conservative Co.) had stuck with their ‘not interested’ stance, the position that prompted the FEI to turn the whole thing out to pasture for a year in the hopes that either Bromont could get a bag of dough or someone else (Doha? Dubai?) would swoop in with bottomless pockets and an irresistible pitch. So what on earth can Bromont possibly offer now that would change the FEI’s mind? Well it turns out the FEI has changed its own mind.
My source is not first hand, but it’s pretty reliable so I’m going to break my own ‘nothing but the incontrovertible facts’ rule and share this with you. Bromont told my colleague that the Parti Quebecois (yes, the party that was not re-elected last month) committed $9 million for operations and $10.5 million for infrastructure for Bromont 2018. The Liberals, who won the election, have told the Bromont committee that they will honour the PQ agreement. Sure. That sounds like exactly like what happens whenever one party is thrown onto the shoulder and another takes the wheel. A little more realistic is the confirmation from the Bromont folks that Mr. Harper has held to his line of ‘no thanks’. So with less than 20 million in hand and zero support from the federal government, how on earth can Bromont fulfill the FEI’s demand that they wave the sufficient dollars in their face before getting the gig? Turns out, it just takes a little word play. I’m told the FEI swapped out a few nouns and adjectives from the contract. As long as Bromont has enough private funding to make up for the government shortfall, they are good to go.
I also heard that Tiger Lyons (I mean Pearse, but don’t you think Tiger is a better first name for him?) paid a visit to La Belle Province in the past month or so. But can and will Alltech pony up that much money? Normandy’s total budget comes in at around 76 million Euros. That is around FIVE TIMES the money Bromont has pre-Alltech. Anyone else see dreams on the ends of pipes here?
We just have to wait a couple of days to find out if Bromont wins the honour of hosting the most expensive-to-run equestrian event in the world, or if we all have to bone up on our Kentucky-speak for another round in Lexington. Stand by!
