2026 - should Calgary bid?

[jayswin]

Originally Posted by Bunk

I'd think for venues:

- Village: The newer U of C residences and development in West Campus
- Opening\Closing Ceremonies: New indoor (possibly retractable roof) stamps stadium which doubles as a large field house long term.
- Media Centre: Expanded convention Centre
- Medal ceremony: refurbished Olympic Plaza (or a new Olympic Plaza at Eau Claire).
- Hockey: new flames arena
- Figure Skating and Short Track: Saddledome before decommissioning
- Speed Skating: Oval with some upgrades
- Alpine Skiing: Lake Louise
- Moguls, Aerials, Half Pipe: COP
- Slopestyle, Ski/Snowboard Cross: Nakiska
- Ski Jump: Canmore Nordic Centre (or Nakiska or Norquay)
- Cross Country, Biathalon: upgraded Canmore Nordic Centre
- Bobsled, luge, skeleton: upgraded COP track for more challenge
- Curling: Winsport or perhaps a totally renewed Corral (which would be a nice capacity arena to have for curling and events\concerts later).

Other infrastructure: improved transit to COP, airport rail connecting to a North Central LRT, which will presumably be built by then.

Bunk, your presence in this thread could mean nothing more than you are an interested Calgarian, but do to your profession I'm going to go out on a limb and assume there's been some buzz about a serious bid?

[frinkprof]

I think there's a good chance of Calgary hosting again by 2038 at the latest. That's two more cycles of the Games passing through North America, leaving room for the USA to play host again.

I think a South American Andes Mountains host may be a small X factor (Chile or Argentina), with the trend being to expand the Games to more than just North America, Europe and developed Asia. I don't think that's very realistic though, just a possibility.

Also in play should be Calgary bidding for a Commonwealth Games or Pan Am Games before trying for the Olympics again. They are easier to win and host, and would help phase the infrastructure and facility investments to build up to an Olympics. Out of a Commonwealth or Pan Am Games, you could get a new stadium and some other goodies.

After Toronto-Hamilton hosts the 2015 Pan Am Games, the next cycle through North America would be 2027. For the Commonwealth Games, 2026 or 2030 would be possible.

Back to the Winter Olympics though, I ultimately think 2026 is doable. Would need SELRT, North Central LRT, airport rail connection (paid for by the airport authority, and probably not before the SE and North Central lines, of course), possibly 8th Avenue Subway, enchanced transit (BRT) to COP area, full ring road plus perhaps some enhancements to the parts already completed.

Hubs would be:

- COP - including new jumps and bobsled track

- U of C - retain and enhance current oval, perhaps add a secondary arena for curling/short track/secondary hockey

- Centre City - media centre, medal ceremonies, hotels, new arena and possibly new stadium

- Olympic athlete's village should either come in the form of buildings to be subsequently used as new residences at U of C or in the Centre City - possibly West Village to be used as condos/attainable housing after Games.

- Satellite hub at Canmore for nordic events similar to how Whistler was organized during Vancouver Games.

- One other possible hub at Max Bell/Firepark area involving secondary arenas for curling/short track and/or secondary hockey facility.

[Dion]

Originally Posted by Turner

Flame suit on. So many better cities than Calgary that should get it.

Calgary is well known for hosting one of the most successful Olympic games. Games I should add that others have measured theirs against.

[Mean Mr. Mustard]

Originally Posted by Dion

Calgary is well known for hosting one of the most successful Olympic games. Games I should add that others have measured theirs against.

Calgary was a great success but they hosted a very different games than the games that you now see, there were half the sports and the media coverage was much, much, much smaller. Never again will you see the Olympics in a small city/big town, because the cost is just too big for it to be a success. Look at a facility like the Oval, adequate for the 1988 Olympics but has half the seating of a facility such as in Richmond or Sochi. Just because it was a success once does not dictate that it will be a success in the future.

Also for a guy as outraged over $45,000, I have to say that I am shocked that you are not a bit tighter with the pursestrings when it comes to something that will cost billions upon billions of dollars.

[Dion]

Originally Posted by Mean Mr. Mustard

Calgary was a great success but they hosted a very different games than the games that you now see, there were half the sports and the media coverage was much, much, much smaller. Never again will you see the Olympics in a small city/big town, because the cost is just too big for it to be a success. Look at a facility like the Oval, adequate for the 1988 Olympics but has half the seating of a facility such as in Richmond or Sochi. Just because it was a success once does not dictate that it will be a success in the future.

Montreal was a much bigger city in 1976 and look at how those summer games turned out. IIRC they were still paying for it 30 years later.

[getbak]

Originally Posted by frinkprof

I think a South American Andes Mountains host may be a small X factor (Chile or Argentina), with the trend being to expand the Games to more than just North America, Europe and developed Asia. I don't think that's very realistic though, just a possibility.

I was wondering about somewhere in the Andes, but I think South America would need to see a significant increase in Winter Sports participation before it would be considered.

In Sochi: Argentina has 7 athletes; Brazil has 13; Chile has 6; Paraguay has 1; Peru has 3; and Venezuela has 1. That's 31 total athletes for the entire continent of South America. Some of them are American or European raised athletes who were either born in those countries, or have parents from those countries.

[Freeway]

Originally Posted by Bunk

I'd think for venues:

- Village: The newer U of C residences and development in West Campus
- Opening\Closing Ceremonies: New indoor (possibly retractable roof) stamps stadium which doubles as a large field house long term.
- Media Centre: Expanded convention Centre
- Medal ceremony: refurbished Olympic Plaza (or a new Olympic Plaza at Eau Claire).
- Hockey: new flames arena
- Figure Skating and Short Track: Saddledome before decommissioning
- Speed Skating: Oval with some upgrades
- Alpine Skiing: Lake Louise
- Moguls, Aerials, Half Pipe: COP
- Slopestyle, Ski/Snowboard Cross: Nakiska
- Ski Jump: Canmore Nordic Centre (or Nakiska or Norquay)
- Cross Country, Biathalon: upgraded Canmore Nordic Centre
- Bobsled, luge, skeleton: upgraded COP track for more challenge
- Curling: Winsport or perhaps a totally renewed Corral (which would be a nice capacity arena to have for curling and events\concerts later).

Other infrastructure: improved transit to COP, airport rail connecting to a North Central LRT, which will presumably be built by then.

(Puts on journalist hat)

You seem to have put quite a bit of thought into this...

[Bunk]

Originally Posted by flameswin

Bunk, your presence in this thread could mean nothing more than you are an interested Calgarian, but do to your profession I'm going to go out on a limb and assume there's been some buzz about a serious bid?

(Puts on journalist hat)

You seem to have put quite a bit of thought into this...

You're overthinking this. I just like the Olympics, have thought about what it would take given apparent IOC and various sport federation requirements.

But I'm sure there's those in the community that have been and will be thinking about future bids. Keep in mind though that awarding of the 2026 games doesn't happen until 2019, so even if a move to bid materialized it's still at least a couple years away.

[Freeway]

Originally Posted by Bunk

You're overthinking this. I just like the Olympics, have thought about what it would take given apparent IOC and various sport federation requirements.

But I'm sure there's those in the community that have been and will be thinking about future bids. Keep in mind though that awarding of the 2026 games doesn't happen until 2019, so even if a move to bid materialized it's still at least a couple years away.

Next municipal election is in October 2017, isn't it?

[getbak]

Originally Posted by Freeway

Next municipal election is in October 2017, isn't it?

Which, if the application deadline for 2022 is any indication, is right around when the applications for 2026 will be due.

[SebC]

Originally Posted by Bunk

- Ski Jump: Canmore Nordic Centre (or Nakiska or Norquay)

I'm curious what makes you think Nordic Centre for ski jumping. Personally, I think an upgraded COP makes the most sense for the games (though potentially not for legacy).

[CliffFletcher]

Most of the existing facilities will need to be rebuilt or largely refurbished for a games 16-20 years from now. The scale of the games has grown immensely. And 60-year old facilities won't look good on TV (which is the whole point of the exercise, commercially). Then there's security. You can't re-use that.

Point is, it will not be the cheap 'we'll just use the facilities we have' games many are musing about. It will cost many billions of dollars.

[Enoch Root]

Originally Posted by Northendzone

If $50 billion is now the benchmark spend - and that is today, let not forget inflation then let's just build all this infrastructure and call it a day......we'd likely be $40 billion ahead........

And by what measure was the calgary games better than any other? To me that is a stupid claim to make, because it is impossible to measure.......

$50 billion is not the new benchmark spend - Sochi was a financial abomination (see some good links in this forum). IIRC, the current summer standard is about $12b and the winter games are about $8-10b.

As many have pointed out, Calgary could probably do it a little cheaper than most other potential locations.

[frinkprof]

Originally Posted by CliffFletcher

Most of the existing facilities will need to be rebuilt or largely refurbished for a games 16-20 years from now. The scale of the games has grown immensely. And 60-year old facilities won't look good on TV (which is the whole point of the exercise, commercially). Then there's security. You can't re-use that.

Point is, it will not be the cheap 'we'll just use the facilities we have' games many are musing about. It will cost many billions of dollars.

I think most people are aware of that.

In my proposed scheme, the only real 1988 facility that would get re-used would be the oval, and some investment would have to take place in it to modernize/refurbish it and add seating. I say keep the oval because it is one of the best maintained facilities from 1988 and is still a top notch oval on the world cup circuit.

I think where most people are seeing opportunity is the fact that a lot of the bigger, most expensive venues that are needed to host are likely going to be built in a timely fashion anyway. Those being a new 18 000 - 20 000 seat arena built for the Flames franchise and possibly a new large stadium for the Stampeders franchise. It's also not out of the realm of possibility to see a smaller arena built for other purposes sometime in the next 10-20 years (to be used during the eventual Games for curling, short track speed skating or secondary hockey games).

Then there's the new facilities built at COP/Winsport. Those are great venues and are only 5 years old. They would certainly be used during a Games held even 25 years from now.

The big investments left would be ski jumps, a heavily renovated nordic facility (Canmore), and bobsleigh track. All of the transportation and logistics infrastructure (LRT, improved roads), the housing (athlete and media village) and hosting infrastructure (medal ceremony facility and media centre) are easily-justifiable investments in the city and would be legacy projects. The Games would just improve and/or speed up the implementation of those. Athlete village becomes housing, media centre becomes conference facilities, etc.

To say that Calgary hosting the Olympics would be another exercise in building an entire new city's worth of venues and infrastructure like Sochi is a big stretch. Vancouver did a relatively budget Olympics by leveraging things like BC Place, Rogers Arena and converting the Oval into a legacy multi-sport field house facility after the Games, and they turned out alright. Calgary hosting again would be much closer to that.

[_Q_]

Sochi Population - 343,334
Pyeongchang - 43,706

Some of you are vastly exaggerating the size of a city necessary for a successful Winter Olympic bid.

[Senator Clay Davis]

If Quebec City can actually find an acceptable ski location then I don't see how the COC won't push for them ahead of another Calgary or Vancouver bid. The ability to have strong Olympic level facilities for future athlete development on both coasts is going to be hard to pass up. Calgary makes more sense from a logistics in place perspective, Quebec City makes more sense in terms of long term development for the COC.

[Rhettzky]

Originally Posted by Turner

I'm not TTC. I enjoy the stampede although the wife and I haven't been in a number of years. Love the energy the city gives off that week. Im raised Calgarian since 2 months and think Calgary is OK.

Who said anything about the Stampede?

[Rathji]

Originally Posted by Rhettzky

Who said anything about the Stampede?

Have you been to the Stampede?!?

and yeah, Olympics us up.

[octothorp]

Originally Posted by Senator Clay Davis

If Quebec City can actually find an acceptable ski location then I don't see how the COC won't push for them ahead of another Calgary or Vancouver bid. The ability to have strong Olympic level facilities for future athlete development on both coasts is going to be hard to pass up. Calgary makes more sense from a logistics in place perspective, Quebec City makes more sense in terms of long term development for the COC.

Olympic scale projects plus the Quebec construction industry just sounds like a recipe for disaster to me. Until they prove that they've cleaned up the mafia control of the industry, I'd be extremely leery about directing billions of dollars in rushed public spending through there.

[Tyler]

Does it honestly make sense to invest all that money in another Canadian city?

We're a small country population-wise, and would be better off re-investing in Calgary Olympics every 40-50 years and keep it as our development hub for winter athletics.