Quote:
Originally Posted by Joborule
Worldwide prestige means it's a city recognized around the world. If Calgary were to do the Olympics regularly, it would be acknowledged as an Olympic city, and each time it's hosted it would draw people to the city for a few weeks, and in between that, draw more interest in the city and the region for worldwide travelers.
As for the facilities, with or without the olympics, these facilities are going to need to be renovated or replaced either way. That's kinda what were dealing with right now with the 2026 bid. This is an opportunity to renew facilities that already get use, to ensure it continues to do so for the new few decades. By hosting the olympics continually, it could gather funding to our facilities needs, and the overall costs would be cheaper since not everything would have to be a brand new build.
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I think this is a point that has largely been overlooked in the debate. Due to the facilities we have from the 88 Olympics (Oval and COP mainly) Calgary has there has been a significant economic spin off. Should these facilities fall into disrepair and/or are mothballed some of these benefits might disappear with them. As a few examples:
1. U of Calgary has (I think) become a bit of a centre of excellence in kinesiology and high performance athletic training due to the number of althletes who train here.
2. Go drop by the Oval almost any time and listen to the number of languages spoken by the people who are training there. They come from all over the world to train in Calgary and bring $$$ with them. And need support services we can provide as well.
3. bobsled/sliding teams train here and live here. So do their coaches, trainers, therapists etc.
4. Hockey Canada is HQ'd here. The women's national team is based here, many of the players, trainers, etc. live here.
Something like 80% of Canada's medalists at the 2018 winter Olympics trained in Calgary.
That's just a small sampling, but add those up and there are probably hundreds of jobs in Calgary that would not be here if not for the facilities and the athletes they attract.