Quote:
Originally Posted by Hack&Lube
No, it'd be a complete waste of time and taxpayer money to even formulate a bid.
Any 88 games specific infrastructure that we still have would be totally half a century out of date by the time enough time has even possibly passed for this even to be considered a 1% possibility.
No Winter Olympics site has ever repeated in the modern era from a successful bid.
The only time a site hosted twice in the modern era was Innusbruck because after Denver had won the 76 games, they backed out at the last minute because the Colorado voters voted against using public funds for it. Innusbruck didn't even make a bid, the IOC selected it as the fall back plan.
Even if you consider the entire history of the Winter Olympics, the only other site that repeated was Lake Placid and that was because Vancouver pulled out and nobody else ran against them in the vote for the 1980 games!
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I don't really see what any of this, save the first two paragraphs, has to do with anything. There are a limited number of cities that really have the ability or interest to host the winter games, and Calgary is among them. When you have only had 20 events you wouldn't expect a lot of repeats, but there were plenty. The cause isn't important, the same causes could arise for Calgary in say 2038 as did Lake Placid in 1980. The IOC has shown a desire to bring the games to North America, and they aren't likely to grant them to American cities over and over again so that leaves Canada. I'd be stunned if Canada doesn't host another winter games in the next 30 years. If that happens Calgary would certainly be in the mix.
Calgary's existing infrastructure will not be useful for the most part, but nothing indicates that Calgary has any interest in simply watching that infrastructure deteriorate. The only venues I really see a potential issue with are the sliding tracks and the oval, and of course the ski jumps which are already obsolete. The sliding tracks can likely be maintained, they'd have to be if Calgary wants to continue to be a world cup site, but the oval might need major updates by then. It's hard to say though, the oval is still pretty state of the art in terms of speed skating venues, will much change in another 30 years? Other venues will be updating for other reasons, there will without a doubt be a new arena sometime in the next 10 years, the nordic center has always been top class, there are numerous possible venues for skiing events, and other events are pretty much always held at temporary or converted venues.