An interesting and timely article from the BBC. There is only passing reference to Calgary and Sean Chu gets a quote.
My take from the views expressed in the article is that Calgary made a choice that others such as Boston made in the past and for the same reasons. It is something that really should make the IOC reevaluate how it approaches future bidding rounds. Or even if there are bidding rounds for future games.
The part about budgeting for the Games and the subsequent overspends makes sense. The programme to successfully deliver them is incredibly complex with a hard deadline to design, deliver and test facilities for readiness by a hard deadline. The cyclical nature and randomness of host locations mean successful jurisdictions have no recent programme and project management experience of preparing for an event. There are no lessons that can be learned and applied. Calgary can’t even use recent Games organising committees to learn from. Afterall, what can Calgary learn from recent hosts such as Sochi or soon to be Beijing?
Those Games are run in a completely different political, economic and social environment. The sort of environment that is toxic and yet, the potential future of these types of events unless there is a real will to change how these Games are run so they are attractive propositions for more communities.
Another take I have is that leaving aside the haphazard timing and reluctance of support from the top two levels of government, Calgary approached this bid in the correct manner, albeit a new hockey arena that could house a professional franchise could have enhanced it somewhat.
If the infrastructure to host a games isn’t there (facilities) in the first place, that is a good indicator there is/was no economic case for it prior to the Games, so why would you need it after the Games?
Calgary has a lot of what could be developed to run a successful games and the city’s approach to the bid, should hopefully be the future. Use and development of existing infrastructure so that they are used in a more sustainable way offers the greatest hope for the future of the Games.
Perhaps some day, the Games will be held in only a small number of cities with infrastructure present, developed and maintained. Maybe Calgary will be one of those cities.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-46236682