[News] UPD: Calgary City Council approves exploratory bid study for 2026 Olympics

[GordonBlue]

Originally Posted by PeteMoss

Calgary as the host city would come out ok, but are you going to be able to get the province and federal government on board since they are typically the big spenders here.

oh yeah. it's an even bigger party for politicians.
not to mention the image burnishing it allows them.
province and feds will pony up no problem.

[RM14]

Just think... In less than 9 years we can all go celebrate at a fully renovated Olympic Plaza downtown... Party it up in the Stampede entertainment district while we watch USA vs Canada (JG & Tkachuck vs. Monahan & Bennett). Take in the closing ceremonies at the brand new football/soccer stadium while they blow-up the Saddledome in the distance as part of the final fireworks to the closing ceremonies..

[jg13]

Originally Posted by RM14

Just think... In less than 9 years we can all go celebrate at a fully renovated Olympic Plaza downtown... Party it up in the Stampede entertainment district while we watch USA vs Canada (JG & Tkachuck vs. Monahan & Bennett). Take in the closing ceremonies at the brand new football/soccer stadium while they blow-up the Saddledome in the distance as part of the final fireworks to the closing ceremonies..

Not watching unless Hamilton is on the team too.

[Reaper]

All I know is that I hope to be rocking my 2026 Olympic Parka with its incredibly dated colours twenty years later like a good Calgarian.

[Table 5]

Originally Posted by Bunk

Calgary should have so much leverage over the IOC, it should be automatic. It should be "we'll bid, but we're only gonna do it our way". The IOC might have to bend. If they don't, screw 'em, we drop out.

I'm not sure I see it being that easy. One thing to keep in mind is that there's already an official bid from Switzerland, and it looks like Innsbruck, Austria will be bidding as well. So you have a couple of stable, traditional winter countries bidding this time. Japan looks to be in the mix still as well.

I agree that Calgary may have a bit of leverage, but it's not exactly "Do as we say, or you get to hold it in Kazakhstan".

2022 would've been an easier path.

[Senator Clay Davis]

I've said this before, but I'd love to see no one bid at all. Let's see what happens when the IOC has literally zero cities interested in hosting. You want leverage over those crooks? That's how you do it, force them to come to us and not the other way around. In that scenario you might even force the IOC to chip in money for security.

[DionTheDman]

Originally Posted by Reaper

All I know is that I hope to be rocking my 2026 Olympic Parka with its incredibly dated colours twenty years later like a good Calgarian.

I swear, if I had one of those badass Sun Ice jackets, I would still be wearing it now.

[Barnes]

Originally Posted by DionTheDman

I swear, if I had one of those badass Sun Ice jackets, I would still be wearing it now.

Forget the jacket. Get a trench coat.

http://www.ebay.ca/itm/1988-Calgary-...YAAOSw6wRW~qoE

[getbak]

The Exploration Committee delivered its interim report to the City on Monday. It's not the final report, so there's no recommendation in it yet.

• Summary: http://www.calgary.ca/CSPS/Recreatio...-Community.pdf
  
• Full: http://www.calgary.ca/CSPS/Recreatio...rim-Report.pdf

There isn't really anything new in the report. Although, it does clarify some things.

It looks like they'll be delivering their recommendation to city administration at the end of May and to Council in June.

[Northendzone]

^ personally I am on pins and needles waiting for the final recommendation......

[getbak]

Rick Hanson was on with Rob Kerr yesterday talking about the process the committee is working through: http://www.sportsnet.ca/960/the-big-...y-olympic-bid/

[Lil Pedro]

Really intrigued by that Hansen interview yesterday with Kerr; sounds like they want to have an answer for every objection when it comes to potentially hosting the Olympics, most notably finances, security and community involvement. I do like the idea of clustering venues to help reduce cost; potentially having most events on Stampede grounds and downtown area would be awesome if they could make it work somehow.

[browna]

Totally random thought, related to the Calgary bid sure but more maybe a general IOC or bid question... With many cities not willing to host given the increased costs of security (which is the big difference over the 80's and 90's hosting of games, tripling (or more) the operating budget) why not give cities back to back games?

That city then, for 8-10 years would be the training ground for all athletes year round, both home country athletes and foreign athletes as well could set up camp here for an extended time. The state of the art facilities would get used for two Olympics, and of course all the training for those games.

Infrastructure,things like the athletes and media village would be better utilized, and the infrastructure would be forced to be better thought out with a longer term plan in mind from the beginning. Logistics and planning could be tweaked after the first games in time for the next games 4 years later.
It just seems that then you'd get more value out of the sports and other facilities and infrastructure by hosting/having them utilized for two Olympics at them rather then a two week shot as well as some training in the year before and the odd event yearly after, and the increased profile of the city as an amateur sport training ground for almost a decade.

Costs would be higher,but not double for hosting two, ,and again,there would be economic benefits such as tourism for having the city as a centre for ametuer sport and top class facilities.

IOC not likely to go for that given the reduce bid amounts that any city going for that,and for some reason they still want to spread it around. But the World Cup bid for Canada the US and Mexico shows that the dynamic is changing for hosting these high profile and high cost events as a one shot type deal.

[Senator Clay Davis]

World Cup expands by 16 more teams in 2026, so really there's maybe 5 countries in the world that can solo host. But when it comes to the 2026 World Cup bid, including Canada and Mexico is mostly about Murica using Canada and Mexico as quasi human shields to try and mitigate Trump in the bid process. If anything the IOC should be looking at establishing a rotation of host cities for summer/winter, but then they can't extract bribes and give the Olympics to dictatorships willing to spend tens of billions, and that's totally counter to the IOC's mission statement of "Corruption, we can't get enough".

[Otto-matic]

Gary Bobrovitz‏Verified account @garybtvnews 5m5 minutes ago
More
Calgary Olympics in 2026 would cost $4.6 billion up from $ 3.2 billion - City Council to discuss if bid goes forward @GlobalCalgary #YYC

[Mazrim]

Before making a gut reaction and condemning the whole thing...a few questions:
- How much is the IOC willing to chip in?
- Have they forecasted how much money they'll make/lose at the end of the day?
- Have they qualified the "benefits" the public sees in visitors/taxes/etc appropriately?

[Locke]

Originally Posted by Otto-matic

Gary Bobrovitz‏Verified account @garybtvnews 5m5 minutes ago
More
Calgary Olympics in 2026 would cost $4.6 billion up from $ 3.2 billion - City Council to discuss if bid goes forward @GlobalCalgary #YYC

Originally Posted by Mazrim

Before making a gut reaction and condemning the whole thing...a few questions:
- How much is the IOC willing to chip in?
- Have they forecasted how much money they'll make/lose at the end of the day?
- Have they qualified the "benefits" the public sees in visitors/taxes/etc appropriately?

What did it cost Vancouver? That cost seems insane.

The IOC is more of a 'Taker' than a 'Giver.'

[Mazrim]

Originally Posted by Locke

What did it cost Vancouver? That cost seems insane.

The IOC is more of a 'Taker' than a 'Giver.'

According to Wikipedia, Vancouver 2010 cost $6.4B with $2.3B coming from taxpayers in some form. That includes all the infrastructure upgrades made in the area with the games and $1B in security. It also says they made money on it so take that as you will.

I don't think the Olympics has much of a future without some kind of handouts from IOC.

[DJones]

Originally Posted by Mazrim

Before making a gut reaction and condemning the whole thing...a few questions:
- How much is the IOC willing to chip in?
- Have they forecasted how much money they'll make/lose at the end of the day?
- Have they qualified the "benefits" the public sees in visitors/taxes/etc appropriately?

How much of the money is Federal is important too.

Free money for Alberta. They'll just spend it in the East otherwise.

[getbak]

$4.6B cost with $2.2B in generated revenue, so it would require $2.4B in additional funding.

http://calgaryherald.com/news/local-...tion-committee