Calgary bid for 2022 Winter Olympics?

[Resolute 14]

This may have been noted in one of the Burke threads, but the Herald had this little tidbit in discussing Ken King's responsibilities:

http://www2.canada.com/calgaryherald...7-94403f2e3d59

Rumours continue to swirl that a possible Olympic bid for the 2022 Winter Games might be in the offing, or at least seriously considered, partly as a springboard to obtaining funding for a new arena and football stadium. The idea of a second Olympics in Calgary isn't so farfetched.


The city already has many existing world-class winter sports facilities in place and the unqualified success of 1988, in both financial and venue sustainability terms, would give it a solid foothold in the bidding.


The International Olympic Committee has set a Nov. 14 application deadline for cities considering staging the 2022 Games. Stay tuned.

So far, only Almaty, Kazakhstan has formally submitted a bid though there are quite a few strong potentials listed in that Wikipedia article. Notably: Stockholm and Munich. Quebec City would obviously get serious priority from the COC and the federal government though if they follow through on a 2022 or 2026 bid.


On top of helping fund new hockey and football stadia, winning such a bid would give the Saddledome a few extra years to evade the wrecking ball.


Think it's worth it to bid?

[Frequitude]

Hell ya. I wonder who we would tap to lead the charge.

[getbak]

I would be very surprised if 2022 doesn't go to Munich.

They finished second to Pyeongchang for the 2018 games. 2022 will be the 50th Anniversary of Munich's Summer Games (which could be a bit of a touchy issue, but would also provide an opportunity for the IOC to address the criticism that they did nothing to honour the 40th Anniversary last year). It will make Munich the first city to host both the Summer and Winter Games. It will also be 16 years since the Winter Games were held in Western Europe (and depending on how tomorrow's vote for the 2020 Summer Games -- between Madrid, Istanbul, and Tokyo -- goes, it could be a decade since any Olympics in Western Europe).

I can't see the IOC awarding the games to Canada for the second time in 12 years, especially with no Western European games in the meantime.


A 2022 Calgary bid will almost certainly fail, but it would also serve as notice to the IOC that Calgary is a serious bidder again (and they have a history of letting cities fail once or twice before finally awarding the Games). If it can help generate some funding from the Federal or Provincial governments for a new arena and stadium, that's really all it would likely accomplish.

[Senator Clay Davis]

All depends on Toronto pretty much. If Toronto can do well hosting the Pan-Am games the COC will probably go all in for a Toronto 2024 bid. And if that happens and Toronto gets it, Canada won't be getting 3 Olympics before the US gets another, so the next Canada gets another Winter Olympics could be 25 years or more.

[polak]

Calgary is the only possible winter olympics host other than Vancouver. Quebec city doesn't have an Olympic caliber ski hill and Edmonton is too far from one as well.

Next time Canada bids for the winter games, it's almost guaranteed to be Calgary. The USA would have to get one of the games before we can, and Europe would need a winter games. I don't see 2022 being successful but potentially a few after that. I do think it will happen within most of our lifetimes.

[undercoverbrother]

Only if hidy and howdy come out of retirement.

[Northendzone]

Persoanlly I hope that the Olympics do not come to galgary, I believe they are far too expensive, despite the legacy they leave behind.

[nfotiu]

Originally Posted by Senator Clay Davis

All depends on Toronto pretty much. If Toronto can do well hosting the Pan-Am games the COC will probably go all in for a Toronto 2024 bid. And if that happens and Toronto gets it, Canada won't be getting 3 Olympics before the US gets another, so the next Canada gets another Winter Olympics could be 25 years or more.

DC has a lot of 2024 talk right now. Maybe I am biased, but that is who my money would be on right now.

[InBurkeWeTrust]

That would be very interesting, but I definitely don't have my hopes up.

[Joborule]

Originally Posted by Resolute 14

On top of helping fund new hockey and football stadia, winning such a bid would give the Saddledome a few extra years to evade the wrecking ball.

Honestly, does this matter much? What's it gonna do in between the time the new arena is operational and the olympics come around? It may makes sense financial and sustainability wise and knock the thing down and build or renovate a current venue for the second arena for the smaller crowd events.

[Resolute 14]

In terms of the Saddledome, you have to look at the long term picture. The Flames are probably still three years away from moving into a new facility, and the clock keeps ticking the longer we wait for an announcement. So assuming the Flames were to move into a new building for 2017-18, that leaves four years to get to the hypothetical 2022 Calgary Olympics. It would be cheaper to maintain a relatively empty Dome for that time than to build new or renovate the Corral. Plus it would be appropriate if another Olympic Games were to be the building's swan song.

But this really only works for 2022. If Calgary were to bid and win for 2026 or 2030, the building's viability becomes much lower.

[Freeway]

The Flames owners are amongst the most connected people in Canada. I can't imagine they'd go into the process blind.

[Tyler]

Hell yeah let's bid!

Vancouver was so fun and there's an entire generation of Calgarians who were either too young or not born before '88 that would love to see it.

[MrMastodonFarm]

This should really be in the main off-topic forum. From just a sports relation sure, lots to talk about but from a Calgary discussion on a whole it could be much bigger.

[JBR]

Ken King to guest on Prime Time sports tonight with McCowan to discuss.

[Tyler]

Didn't really comment too much, but seems like he would be interested in it.

[Tyler]

Interesting news:

http://www.ctvnews.ca/sports/barcelo...ames-1.1512838

Barcelona won't be bidding on the Olympics. Calgary could potentially win this if we were to throw a bid in. Funding for new arena + stadium could come rather easily.

Thoughts?

Bid deadline is November 14th.

[nik-]

I would imagine that deadline means it's not happening. We likely would have heard more about it. Pretty hard to keep something that large under wraps with only 8 days remaining. Also, judging by the IOC president's comments, if we go head to head with Barcelona in 2026, we'll lose.

[Rutuu]

Originally Posted by polak

Calgary is the only possible winter olympics host other than Vancouver. Quebec city doesn't have an Olympic caliber ski hill and Edmonton is too far from one as well.

Next time Canada bids for the winter games, it's almost guaranteed to be Calgary. The USA would have to get one of the games before we can, and Europe would need a winter games. I don't see 2022 being successful but potentially a few after that. I do think it will happen within most of our lifetimes.

Edmonton earned the nickname "Dead-monton" when they hosted the Commonwealth games. Calgary still earns praise for its volunteerism and organization from the '88 games.

[You Need a Thneed]

Calgary did not submit a bid.