Should Calgary Bid on the 2026 Olympics

[Parallex]

Originally Posted by Slava

Once you land that Zip Recruiter and Blue Apron money, we'll all be onto you!

Psh... you've only hit the big time when you get that sweet sweet Harry's Razor and Casper Mattress money.

[Senator Clay Davis]

Sure seems like Nenshi is desperately trying to save this thing, they've been behind closed doors for more than 90 minutes (in keeping with this amazingly transparent process...).

[Bunk]

Originally Posted by Slava

Once you land that Zip Recruiter and Blue Apron money, we'll all be onto you!

If we do start advertising off the show, I plan on taking no money myself. I will maybe pay some money and/or buy a computer for my brother who does the editing, but mostly any revenue would just stay with the LiveWire news site to help it grow.

[Slava]

Originally Posted by Bunk

If we do start advertising off the show, I plan on taking no money myself. I will maybe pay some money and/or buy a computer for my brother who does the editing, but mostly any revenue would just stay with the LiveWire news site to help it grow.

Oh, I was purely joking. If you have a podcast with enough listeners to get good advertising, why shouldn't you profit? Anyway, back to the discussion at hand...

[Senator Clay Davis]

This trainwreck looks like it might continue for whatever reason.

https://twitter.com/user/status/1057323811635425282

[topfiverecords]

Bunk has a podcast? I'll for sure subscribe and listen.

[Parallex]

Originally Posted by topfiverecords

Bunk has a podcast? I'll for sure subscribe and listen.

https://livewirecalgary.com/category/common-ground-yyc/

[Bunk]

Originally Posted by Parallex

https://livewirecalgary.com/category/common-ground-yyc/

On iTunes, Stitcher, etc too. Next up (recorded this morning) President & CEO of Calgary Chamber of Commerce Sandip Lalli. Should be out tomorrow or Thursday!

Anyway, so yeah, Olympics or stuff. Alive or dead?

[topfiverecords]

Originally Posted by Bunk

On iTunes, Stitcher, etc too. Next up (recorded this morning) President & CEO of Calgary Chamber of Commerce Sandip Lalli. Should be out tomorrow or Thursday!

Anyway, so yeah, Olympics or stuff. Alive or dead?

Will add it to my rotation.

Any chance the province ups their contribution to keep this alive?

[Parallex]

Originally Posted by Bunk

Anyway, so yeah, Olympics or stuff. Alive or dead?

Right now it's Schrödinger's Olympic Bid.

[Senator Clay Davis]

https://twitter.com/user/status/1057338150027067392

https://twitter.com/user/status/1057337105741803520

https://twitter.com/user/status/1057337727631286272

[transplant99]

I won't be surprised if the bid continues with some "last minute agreements" that are anything but transparent in what is agreed to or what it actually means.

In fact i wont be surprised if they get this to the vote, the no side wins, and they still go ahead with the bid anyways. Really think that the non-binding part of the plebiscite tells us this.

This has been a legacy project from day 1 for the mayor and he seems like a guy who wont take no for an answer when he has his sight set on something he wants. Not to blame him for that, but the entire thing HAS to produce some serious infrastructure in order for it to be viewed as such, and at this point that simply is not included

[oldschoolcalgary]

There is a possibility that there's no legitimate bid for the 2026 Winter Olympics.

if Calgary pulls out, neither the Italian bid nor the Stockholm bid have any government funding support... so hard to see how either of those two bids would even be remotely viable.

big slap in the face for the IOC if no one seeks to host - maybe that will force them to re-calibrate? The Olympics need to get less onerous, not more... with the increase in security alone, it seems like paring back the scale of the event is the right path to go, not increasing it.

[Locke]

Originally Posted by transplant99

I won't be surprised if the bid continues with some "last minute agreements" that are anything but transparent in what is agreed to or what it actually means.

In fact i wont be surprised if they get this to the vote, the no side wins, and they still go ahead with the bid anyways. Really think that the non-binding part of the plebiscite tells us this.

This has been a legacy project from day 1 for the mayor and he seems like a guy who wont take no for an answer when he has his sight set on something he wants. Not to blame him for that, but the entire thing HAS to produce some serious infrastructure in order for it to be viewed as such, and at this point that simply is not included

Really? Thats how you view the guy standing up and saying that if the Feds dont cough up more cash hes going to kill the proposal?

[GordonBlue]

Originally Posted by oldschoolcalgary

There is a possibility that there's no legitimate bid for the 2026 Winter Olympics.

if Calgary pulls out, neither the Italian bid nor the Stockholm bid have any government funding support... so hard to see how either of those two bids would even be remotely viable.

big slap in the face for the IOC if no one seeks to host - maybe that will force them to re-calibrate? The Olympics need to get less onerous, not more... with the increase in security alone, it seems like paring back the scale of the event is the right path to go, not increasing it.

I agree.
here's what we can get rid of:

biathlon
cross country skiing
ski jumping
Nordic combined (so all the Nordic events)

speed skating (keep short track)
mixed doubles and team luge
woman's monobob (dumb idea for 2022)
team figure skating

[GordonBlue]

Originally Posted by Locke

Really? Thats how you view the guy standing up and saying that if the Feds dont cough up more cash hes going to kill the proposal?

why shouldn't calgary pony up more cash, though? it's their event and they want all the benefits. why should it be alberta or the feds? heck, the IOC must see nobody wants to do the Olympics. they should cough up more cash too.

If the Olympics contain all the ongoing benefits for the city that the yes side keeps telling me, wouldn't another 300 million from the city be no big deal? or at least Calgary should guarantee to cover any overruns. that should be ok shouldn't it? I keep hearing they can do it on the 5.3 budget. put their money where their mouth is.

[Bunk]

Originally Posted by GordonBlue

why shouldn't calgary pony up more cash, though? it's their event and they want all the benefits. why should it be alberta or the feds? heck, the IOC must see nobody wants to do the Olympics. they should cough up more cash too.

If the Olympics contain all the ongoing benefits for the city that the yes side keeps telling me, wouldn't another 300 million from the city be no big deal? or at least Calgary should guarantee to cover any overruns. that should be ok shouldn't it? I keep hearing they can do it on the 5.3 budget. put their money where their mouth is.

That's a fair argument. The host city is the one that has the most direct benefit, followed by the nation as a whole. Municipalities, on the other hand, have the least fiscal capacity. One could argue that Olympics in particular should largely be considered a national endeavour though. It is the maple leaf that athletes are competing for, and there is a level of international prestige for the country that comes along with it. And you're spreading the cost burden across 37 million people, instead of just 1.3 million locally. Arguably, the Province as an entity has the least to gain.

[getbak]

Originally Posted by Locke

Really? Thats how you view the guy standing up and saying that if the Feds dont cough up more cash hes going to kill the proposal?

Also, to be considered a legacy project for Nenshi, he'd have to still be the mayor in 2026. There's still two more elections between now and then. No Calgary mayor has ran in 5 elections in over 60 years, and Duerr is the only one to run in 4 elections since the term of office was extended to 3 years in 1971.

No one looks back on the 1988 Games as Ross Alger's legacy even though he was the mayor when Calgary bid.

[Locke]

Originally Posted by GordonBlue

why shouldn't calgary pony up more cash, though? it's their event and they want all the benefits. why should it be alberta or the feds? heck, the IOC must see nobody wants to do the Olympics. they should cough up more cash too.

If the Olympics contain all the ongoing benefits for the city that the yes side keeps telling me, wouldn't another 300 million from the city be no big deal? or at least Calgary should guarantee to cover any overruns. that should be ok shouldn't it? I keep hearing they can do it on the 5.3 budget. put their money where their mouth is.

We're going to. This is called 'Hard Ball.'

But if you just show up with cash flowing out of your pockets you're going to get taken to the cleaners. Furthermore the 'infrastructure' part of the ledger on this proposal has been ridiculously light.

We're not looking like we're going to make out like bandits here.

But you keep a tight lid on the finances otherwise they can easily spiral out of control.

[Roughneck]

Originally Posted by GordonBlue

I agree.
here's what we can get rid of:

biathlon
cross country skiing
ski jumping
Nordic combined (so all the Nordic events)

speed skating (keep short track)
mixed doubles and team luge
woman's monobob (dumb idea for 2022)
team figure skating

Biathlon and cross-country have huge European ratings. They wouldn't give them up. Not to mention the ski courses are some of the more lasting infrastructure anyways that's beneficial for year-round public use, of all the events these are some of the easier to justify the legacy benefit.



Ski jumping and nordic combined sure. High costs fr jumps for relatively low-payoff. Tradition is what keeps them around, really.



Speed skating is a pretty popular event and a ratings mainstay as well. Would lose a lot of money if they got rid of it.



The sliding events were basically added to help improve the return on building the sliding track. If you're going to keep the other sliding events, you might as well keep these ones as it is basically three more days of ticket sales for infrastructure you're paying for anyway.



Team Figure Skating also doesn't add any infrastructure costs, but gives the networks one of their ratings favorites.