Quote:
Originally Posted by Wormius
I have looked for answers before, but should the costs become unacceptably high as building is going on, can the city simply just bail on it? What’s the city on the hook for if we commit to it and then due to financial pressures of cost overruns decide to cancel it? What are we on the hook for in that case?
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Only once in history has a city been awarded the Olympics only to later back out. That was the 1976 Winter Games.
Denver was named the host city in May 1970. In November 1972, a statewide referendum on State funding for the Games was held and it was defeated. As a result, Denver withdrew a week later. Due to the short timeline, the Games were subsequently awarded to Innsbruck, which had hosted the 1964 Games.
I don't believe there were any consequences to Denver for pulling out. The IOC awarded the 1980 Games to Lake Placid two years after Denver pulled out (although, they were the only bid, so the IOC didn't have much choice).
I don't know what kind of legal requirements were in place back then, so it's possible that the IOC has changed things to ensure cities won't back out now. Currently, as part of submitting the final bid in January, all funding agreements must be fully in place, which includes guarantees for all cost overruns.
The consequences would likely depend greatly upon how close before the Olympics the city pulled out. I'd guess that because Calgary has most of the required venues in place already, the more-likely outcome would be that certain renovations and enhancements would just get dropped and they'd make do with what already exists.