Should Calgary Bid on the 2026 Olympics

[Senator Clay Davis]

Originally Posted by stampsx2

Salt Lake City olympics had a profit of 56 million U.S.
Beijing Olympics had a profit of 146 million U.S.

Is the bribery factored into Salt Lake?
China dude? Come on really? I get you're desperate for this to the point you'd probably vote NDP for the rest of your life, but come on.

[transplant99]

Calgary ran a profit for sure....over $100M IIRC.

Not sure the city itself saw any of that money or it all went to CODA who dispersed it to various Canadian sport bodies.

[Tyler]

Originally Posted by Senator Clay Davis

Please cite any Olympics that has come in on time and on budget.

I'd have to say that every Olympics in recent memory has come in on time

[GordonBlue]

Originally Posted by stampsx2

Vancouver
Calgary 88

Beijing Olympics had a profit of 146 million U.S.

cost overrun for the Calgary 1988 games was 65% and Vancouver was only 13%

leaving aside the accounting of how they got that number, did you know the goal in bejing was a 1.6 billion dollar profit?
did you also calculate the cost of closing thousands of factories to ensure clean air during the games? bet they didn't.


here's a business paper to read
https://eureka.sbs.ox.ac.uk/6195/1/2016-20.pdf

Main findings of the study are, first, that average actual outturn cost for is USD 3.1 billion for Winter Games. The numbers cover the period 1960-2016 and include only sports-related costs, i.e., wider capital costs for general infrastructure, which are often larger than sports-related costs, have been excluded

at 156 percent in real terms, the Olympics have the highest average cost overrun of any type of megaproject. Moreover, cost overrun is found in all Games, without exception; for no other type of megaproject is this the case.


observation form the study

A budget is typically established as the maximum – or, alternatively, the expected – value to be spent on a project. However, in the Games the budget is more like a fictitious minimum that is consistently overspent. Further, even more than in other megaprojects, each budget is established with a legal requirement for the host city and country government to guarantee that they will cover the cost overruns of the Games. Our data suggest the guarantee is akin to writing a blank check for the event, with certainty that the cost will be more than what has been quoted. In practice, the bid budget is really more of a down payment than it is a budget, with further installments to be paid later.

[OMG!WTF!]

Originally Posted by Tyler

Please cite major recent (post 2010) City of Calgary projects that have not come in on time and on budget.

We're getting half the green line for double the price but true, it hasn't actually started construction yet. There are hospitals all over the province that have been over budget and time, from memory Medicine Hat and the new one Graham Construction is being blamed for in Grand Prairie. But Red Deer can't even get started on their expansion because the budget keeps going up. The South Campus Health Center was a bit late and on budget after the budget was revised from a billion to 1.3 billion. I remember the ring road builders were being fined a million dollars a day when they were late. Yet headlines said it was in time and budget. Anyway, it's easy to be on time when you can adjust your finish date and very easy to be on budget when the budget is open for change. None of those things are possible with the olympics.

[Tyler]

Originally Posted by OMG!WTF!

We're getting half the green line for double the price but true, it hasn't actually started construction yet. There are hospitals all over the province that have been over budget and time, from memory Medicine Hat and the new one Graham Construction is being blamed for in Grand Prairie. But Red Deer can't even get started on their expansion because the budget keeps going up. The South Campus Health Center was a bit late and on budget after the budget was revised from a billion to 1.3 billion. I remember the ring road builders were being fined a million dollars a day when they were late. Yet headlines said it was in time and budget. Anyway, it's easy to be on time when you can adjust your finish date and very easy to be on budget when the budget is open for change. None of those things are possible with the olympics.

So, just to clarify... when I asked you to cite any City of Calgary projects in the last 8 years that had not been on time or on budget, you chose to go on a bizarre tangent about miscellaneous provincial projects that The City has nothing to do with.

I hope you and other people reading this thread understand that it's people like you are negatively impacting the sensible 'Yes' vote

[Senator Clay Davis]

Originally Posted by Tyler

I'd have to say that every Olympics in recent memory has come in on time

Gotta love those technicalities of "The facilities opened for the Games, they were on time", even if they were initially scheduled to be finished months earlier, leading to the kinds of major cost overruns that plague the Olympics. Interestingly enough, that proves that for IOC things to be "on time", it's because they're frequently well over budget.

[Tyler]

Originally Posted by Senator Clay Davis

Gotta love those technicalities of "The facilities opened for the Games, they were on time", even if they were initially scheduled to be finished months earlier, leading to the kinds of major cost overruns that plague the Olympics. Interestingly enough, that proves that for IOC things to be "on time", it's because they're frequently well over budget.

LOL that one obviously went over your head dude

[Senator Clay Davis]

Originally Posted by Tyler

LOL that one obviously went over your head dude

Cool, look into the Rio and Sochi venues that all "opened on time" and see how their finances went.

[OMG!WTF!]

Originally Posted by Tyler

So, just to clarify... when I asked you to cite any City of Calgary projects in the last 8 years that had not been on time or on budget, you chose to go on a bizarre tangent about miscellaneous provincial projects that The City has nothing to do with.

I hope you and other people reading this thread understand that it's people like you are negatively impacting the sensible 'Yes' vote

We do hire construction companies like Graham to do work on City projects all the time. Would you like to provide a list of on time and on budget projects to prove your point. You're still the one saying city projects are on time. The BRT zones on 17th ave se and the construction on 17the ave sw have been really behind schedule. SW was supposed to be done last year but might get finished in 2020 sometime. I'd be interested in seeing some that have been done according to he original budget and time line. I think the Crowchild bridge is sort of on time.

[sureLoss]

News Update

Feds promise up to $1.75 billion

https://calgaryherald.com/news/polit...for-2026-games

The federal cabinet has authorized Olympic spending of up to $1.75 billion for Calgary’s 2026 Olympics, if the city bids for the Games and wins.

The amount was voted on this week, according to a federal source authorized to speak on the matter and interviewed by Postmedia on Friday.

The $1.75 billion is much higher than most people involved in the bid expected from Ottawa.

Some officials involved with the file thought the feds would specifically match the announced provincial and city pledges combined, which won’t likely top $1.2 billion. In that case, the three-party total would have fallen far short of the $3 billion in public funding said to be ideal for the Games.

However, Ottawa now offers the incentive of a much bigger cash envelope — on two conditions.

First, the province and city would have to raise their spending to get the matching money up to $1.75 billion.

So far, the Notley government has pledged $700 million. The city contribution is expected to be less than $500 million.

That total — somewhere around $1.2 billion — is less than necessary to secure matching for the $3 billion target.

Now, both the province and city hall have to decide whether to up their ante to take advantage of the federal offer that could actually enable total public spending above $3 billion.

The second condition, the federal source said, is that the $1.75 billion commitment will be cancelled if Calgarians reject the Olympic bid in the plebiscite set for Nov. 13.

[craigwd]

Originally Posted by Senator Clay Davis

Is the bribery factored into Salt Lake?
China dude? Come on really? I get you're desperate for this to the point you'd probably vote NDP for the rest of your life, but come on.

So you are referring to a voting scandal that happened 7 years before SLC and impacted the choice of SLC as a host city, caused the bid process the drastically change for the better, and resulted in a very successful Games that were pretty much rescued from the original bidders........and somehow trying to shoehorn your budget bias into that?

[Senator Clay Davis]

Originally Posted by sureLoss

News Update

Feds promise up to $1.75 billion

https://calgaryherald.com/news/polit...for-2026-games

So spend even more money to spend even more money. What a ####ing con game this all is.

[Weitz]

the Real question is how many Olympics come in under the initial set budget.

[Jacks]

So just some back of napkin numbers.

Public funding $3000M + 300M for 1/2 of new arena = 3.3B
Round it up to 3.5B to get to max fed funding.

- Feds $1.75B
- Province $1B? someone should ask Kenney again now that we have more info

Leaves total city contribution at 750M?
- $xxM? for upkeep of facilities that we have to pay regardless
Guessing that leaves $700M in new spending?

For that we get:
New fieldhouse for which he have already planned $200M
New arena which we are going to have to pay $200-$300M eventually regardless
Upgrades to McMahon which are desperately needed
All existing Olympic venues updated + some new ones
2800? new housing units for low cost / seniors / indigenous / students
The games themselves

Other benefits?

Can someone who isn't entrenched against a bid no matter what fill in any of those blanks?
Doesn't look that bad to me.

[Bunk]

That is a strange condition to spend more to get the matching amount.

Idea: spend $300m more of public $ on arena (something we’ll probably end up doing anyway). Prov and City contribution then $1.5b, Fed Contribution $1.5b

You could square the circle of the overall budget - and you get a sweetener on the bid in terms of stuff you get.

To square the circle of fixed provincial contribution and this fed condition, the budget either HAS to go up or down. Down at this point wouldn’t seem believable. Up gets you the sweetener via City funds that leverage 1:1 fed $.

[Northendzone]

A new arena for $200 to $300 million??? That is news to me. The only news about an arena I can find is a 6000 seat arena. The current $5b budget does not include a new NHL arena

https://calgaryherald.com/news/local...-2026-olympics

Originally Posted by Jacks

New arena which we are going to have to pay $200-$300M eventually regardless

[craigwd]

Originally Posted by Northendzone

A new arena for $200 to $300 million??? That is news to me. The only news about an arena I can find is a 6000 seat arena. The current $5b budget does not include a new NHL arena

https://calgaryherald.com/news/local...-2026-olympics

You are forgetting the monies the Flames would be putting into it, add that to the monies in the bid and the small arena becomes an NHL arena.

[Northendzone]

^ so is this documented somewhere, or is it currently wishful thinking?

[craigwd]

^ no, not documented or official yet. But it's a logical step.