[Zarley]

New poll out showing strong public support for an Olympic bid:

http://www.metronews.ca/news/calgary...-bid-poll.html

Calgarians can feel it all right – the Olympic spirit, that is.

In an exclusive ThinkHQ/Metro poll conducted in the days leading up to the opening of the Rio games, 54 per cent of Albertans and 60 per cent of Calgarians said they approve of Calgary entering a bid on the 2026 Winter Olympic Games.

The Globe had an in depth article on a potential Calgary bid as well:

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/...ticle31396030/

Going for gold – again
David Ebner

Three years ago, a small group of Calgarians considered a bid for the 2022 Winter Olympics. They didn’t have much time and the list of interested cities was crowded. The Calgarians didn’t push forward. Other bidders then turned away. Oslo, seen as a favourite, dropped out, as potential costs cut into public support. In the end, there were only two contenders, the fewest for an Olympics in more than three decades. Beijing won, narrowly defeating Almaty, Kazakhstan.

The episode jarred the imperious International Olympic Committee and added urgency to its nascent reforms, dubbed Olympic Agenda 2020. The key changes aimed at costs: making the Olympics less expensive to bid for and to stage.

In Calgary, the Olympic spirit was renewed – and the plan to consider a bid for the 2026 Winter Olympics went public in June. It has the enthusiastic support of the mayor and city council but also attracted criticism, from questions about the IOC – called “deeply corrupt” by one dissenting city councillor – to the value of hosting the Olympics. The last Winter Olympics in Russia cost a fortune and this month’s Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro have been beset by problems.

Calgary believes it can set a new standard. The city – mired in a deep recession – sees a second Olympics as the road to new infrastructure: transit, housing, and sports facilities. But organizers believe Calgary can do it on a budget and be a city that helps reshape the Olympics, to put on the big show at a reasonable cost. Calgary has done it well before, in 1988, and is ready to take a lesson from the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, which generated a golden glow and didn’t leave behind piles of debt.