Quote:
Originally Posted by troutman
He also erred in saying a new arena is vital for an Olympic Bid. The IOC was just here and said the Saddledome was fine for their purposes.
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I don't buy this new revelation from the Olympic committee, I believe this was a shrewd point made on their part to put support for the idea of a Calgary Olympics over the top.
They know as well as anyone that follows winter Olympics that there will need to be two arenas with significant capacity to cover all the events. They also know that Calgary will almost assuredly receive part of the funding for a new hockey arena from the federal government if the Olympics are tied in as they know both team and city want a new arena, so they decided to stay calm and sell an easy Olympic games to the city rather than get themselves involved in an ugly city debate which would likely turn more citizens off of an Olympic bid.
It was a perfect political move from the Olympic committee.
- Will an arena deal likely be reached in time to have it built for the 2026 Olympics? Yes
- Will an arena deal be reached in time to have it built by 2026 if Calgary doesn't get/take the Olympics? Yes
So instead of making things seem more expensive to the city they took the shrewd step of easing off and saying "whoa, look guys the Saddledome is fine for the Olympics", and suddenly a bid looks way more palatable.
They are absolutely hedging their bets on an arena being built in time and it's a good bet and perfect public perception move on their part, imo.