[Rumour] Burke freeing up King's time for Olympic bid

[clintb]

Originally Posted by Resolute 14

Yup, and that is why I noted that if Calgary is serious, we should be able to win a Games relatively soon. The question is, how serious is a bid vis-a-vis the desire for an arena district? But it would be a neat trick since it would significantly increase public support for such projects.

Oh man... I really hope we don't

I don't want to be footing the bill for the next 20 years

[polak]

Originally Posted by clintb

Oh man... I really hope we don't

I don't want to be footing the bill for the next 20 years

You're one of the people that thought the Peace Bridge should've looked like this, aren't you?

[nik-]

I'm totally against government assistance to the pro sports teams, but I would be ok with Olympics infrastructure spending as long as it's not horrendous.

The Olympics left a pretty amazing legacy of facilities that are used to this day in this city, and it would be pretty cool to restart the cycle.

[clintb]

Originally Posted by polak

You're one of the people that thought the Peace Bridge should've looked like this, aren't you?

SERIOUSLY, you're using the Peace Bridge as a topic to argue FOR Government being in charge of Big Spending?

Check yourself before you Wreck yourself

[polak]

Originally Posted by clintb

SERIOUSLY, you're using the Peace Bridge as a topic to argue FOR Government being in charge of Big Spending?

Check yourself before you Wreck yourself

No, I'm using it to point out that you're a penny pinching party pooper.

PPPP

[nik-]

$25 million is big spending?

[clintb]

Originally Posted by polak

No, I'm using it to point out that you're a penny pinching party pooper.

PPPP

I"m a fan of spending, I just don't trust those guys to do it well

I'm also more focused on encouraging Government spending for my PERSONAL interests as opposed to thoe that serve the greater good

Purely selfish, i'll admit

A new Hockey stadium would be great

A racetrack would be awesome too

[troutman]

Originally Posted by polak

As has been posted before, Calgary will be the next Canadian city to host the winter games. Only other possible candidate city is Vancouver which we all know just had the games.

Why couldn't a small Canadian city make a bid (small European cities have)? Not accessible enough?

Ex. Canmore, Kelowna, Revelstoke, Kamloops.

[strombad]

Originally Posted by clintb

SERIOUSLY, you're using the Peace Bridge as a topic to argue FOR Government being in charge of Big Spending?

Check yourself before you Wreck yourself

Well, he DOES make a good point.
Gotta spend that cheddar on some cool stuff too. Calgary is in a pretty prime situation to afford the Olympics, plus, I feel we're kind of on the brink of really being an "international" city, and I think another Olympics could give us that push.

[19Yzerman19]

It's probably good timing if it's going to be 2026 or 2030.

[Super Nintendo Chalmers]

Originally Posted by MattyC

If Calgary gets the Olympics I hope Jamaica submits a bobsled team again. That would be awesome.

Cooooooool Runningsssss!

And Eddie the Eagle comes out of retirement.

[clintb]

Originally Posted by troutman

Why couldn't a small Canadian city make a bid (small European cities have)? Not accessible enough?

Ex. Canmore, Kelowna, Revelstoke, Kamloops.

WOW, not sure how they'd manage all the guests though

Build a bunch of hotels?

[clintb]

Originally Posted by Super Nintendo Chalmers

And Eddie the Eagle comes out of retirement.

That would be nice!

[Red John]

Kelowna is one of the only Canadian cities that could legitimately host the Winters or the Summer games.

Neither will happen though; there just aren't any facilities and no money to build any. The economy is bad enough already here.

[worth]

Not sure if anyone actually listened to the interview or not, but this idea was rejected by King. He said that he has had extremely limited discussions on the Olympics in Canada and denied that he will be moving in this direction. Said he is on a few boards in Calgary and would be supportive of this happening, but he is not heading anything up at this time.

[clintb]

Originally Posted by worth

Not sure if anyone actually listened to the interview or not, but this idea was rejected by King. He said that he has had extremely limited discussions on the Olympics in Canada and denied that he will be moving in this direction. Said he is on a few boards in Calgary and would be supportive of this happening, but he is not heading anything up at this time.

SO this thread has a life of its own, based on pure fiction.

Well, I guess that's what the internet is for isn't it?

[Coach]

Yeah I heard KK on the radio this morning say that as private citizen of Calgary he would be a supporter of an Olympic bid, but there isn't much beyond that. Although I agree that it would be a great time for the Olympics to come here again.

[the2bears]

Originally Posted by MattyC

If Calgary gets the Olympics I hope Jamaica submits a bobsled team again. That would be awesome.

Cooooooool Runningsssss!

And Eddie the Eagle Jr. shows up to ski jump!

edit: Aargh... so late to the Eddie the Eagle party

[polak]

Originally Posted by troutman

Why couldn't a small Canadian city make a bid (small European cities have)? Not accessible enough?

Ex. Canmore, Kelowna, Revelstoke, Kamloops.

Kelowna could possibly do it. All the other ones are relatively far from major airports and would need unfathomable amounts of infrastructure to be built. Even though it's a bigger city I still don't see Kelowna having the money to launch a successful bid though. Maybe someone more familiar with the area could talk about that but it'd need a huge investment in infrastructure. Outside of the ski hill itself, does it have anything that would be useable? Not just sports wise either. It's airport, surrounding highways and local roads? Especially if compared to a willing Calgary?

Technically, any of the major cities in Canada could host the summer games. There's nothing special needed geographically speaking. Just a decent sized body of water. If Calgary wanted to bid for the Summer Games our geography wouldn't stop us in anyway (we could use the reservoir for the outdoor swimming events, maybe sylvan or little bow for sailing?). Our complete lack of venues might however. We'd need multiple large stadiums (McMahon probably wouldn't work for anything), large swimming complexes, a few new arenas of varying size... the list just goes on. But if we really wanted too, we could do it. Even Edmonton could.

As for Ken King's response. He says a lot of stuff. Who knows if he's even allowed to publicly confirm that something is in the works. He could also just not be part of that specific committee. Him completely shutting down one of the few strategies he could have for public funding of a new arena would be pretty stupid if you ask me.

[Northendzone]

Kelowna would likely be a transportation nightmare, it is hard enough getting around in mid July, never mind doing it in feb with the snow. Kelowna would need a 20,000 seat rink built, plus stuff for the sliding sports.

I fail to see how calgary is in great shape to foot the bill for the games. Don't we have a few 100 million of flood damage. We are years away from seeing a C train line to the deep south. Seems that there are schools that need to be built, and so on........not to mention the current debt load. Other than those things, we are in great shape.