[News] UPD: Calgary City Council approves exploratory bid study for 2026 Olympics

[FBI]

Originally Posted by the-rasta-masta

I imagine you're quite smooth with the ladies when you tell them that.

Not exactly heh. I think the ladies are more into guitar players than piano players. On the other hand with my 2 and 4 year old, I'm the bomb.

[Coach]

Originally Posted by FBI

Not exactly heh. I think the ladies are more into guitar players than piano players. On the other hand with my 2 and 4 year old, I'm the bomb.

Hard to drag a piano to a campfire

[sureLoss]

Looks like Denver is considering bidding for 2026

http://www.denverpost.com/2016/06/22...-olympics-bid/

[powderjunkie]

Originally Posted by Badgers Nose

LOL @ a muni having a 7.5% contingency on anything.

It's looks like they have plenty of contingency built into each of those categories.

Originally Posted by Torture

What were the objections back then? Always wondered why they didn't do it at Louise.

Undivided highway for a section was a big issue too. No longer a problem.

Originally Posted by Zarley

Just thinking about potential venues. It would be nice to include Banff in the bid this time to push the Calgary - Banff tourism factor and would tie in nicely with the proposed resumption of passenger rail service between Calgary and Lake Louise.

Calgary
New Flames arena: Hockey
Stampede Corral (if it's still around): Curling
Saddledome: Figure skating, short-track
New stadium: Opening/closing ceremonies
Oval: Speed skating
COP: Bobsled, luge, skeleton, some freestyle ski & snowboard events
COP Arena: Secondary hockey matches

Canmore
Nordic events
Ski jumping

Banff
Norquay: Rest of the freestyle ski & snowboard events

Lake Louise
Alpine events

It would be Nakiska instead of Norquay for several reasons: Norquay is in a National Park (and not built to accomodate the visitor traffic as LLSR), access road not built for that traffic and potentially sketchy in bad weather, spectator access is actually not easy based on layout of the hill as they aren't holding any events off the Cascade chair.

I'd say build a new sliding track from the Nordic Centre down the hill towards town, with a gondola back up (or perhaps a 'land coaster' that could transport people and sleds). Ski jumping their as well...maybe Aerial too. For the sliding sports, it would be great to have an easy track (Calgary) as a stepping stone into the sport, and more advanced tracks like Canmore and Whistler.

Slalom and all of the freestyle events could happen at COP. Nakiska could provide a way better slopestyle course, but spectator potential at COP is way stronger.

[Rhettzky]

Just saw on Global Edmontons mayor sguesting that we do an Alberta bid and combine it with their planned 2026 Commonwealth Games bid. Ugh.

[Blankcanvas]

Looks like the Calgary potential bid is being taken pretty seriously:

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgar...2026-1.3661494

[craigwd]

Not really Olympic related but the Olympic Oval is replacing the temporary bleachers with some better quality, fancier bleachers. I believe the funding came from the Canada 150 grant.

The upgrade was likely for the Short Track World Cup coming in the fall but this would be the kind of thing needed to update the facility to make it Olympic ready.

[Resolute 14]

Seems a bit odd they'd do the short track world cup at the Oval instead of FDB or Winsport. Not the best view for spectators given how far away the long track pushes people.

[CroFlames]

Couldn't short track be held in any Euro sized rink?

[craigwd]

Originally Posted by Resolute 14

Seems a bit odd they'd do the short track world cup at the Oval instead of FDB or Winsport. Not the best view for spectators given how far away the long track pushes people.

For world cups spectators sit in bleachers surrounding the short track rink (the north rink).

FDB and Winsport can't be easily transformed because the boards would have to be removed to install the cushions. I believe the ice would also have to be redone.

Plus FDB is ugly and cold and a mess.

[GGG]

Originally Posted by CroFlames

Couldn't short track be held in any Euro sized rink?

Short track I think can be done in regular NA ice rinks. For Vancouver it was in Pacific Coliseum

[hah]

See below

[hah]

Bryant Gumbel "Real Sports" expose of the IOC. Some countries will never bid on games again.

Must see TV

The Norway segment is very interesting.

Try and watch the full 90 minute program.

http://www.hbo.com/real-sports-with-bryant-gumbel

[TheScorpion]

Man, I hope I get to see an Olympics here in my lifetime. I missed out on '88, this would be a joy to watch.

[Northendzone]

^ start saving for the hockey ticket's now. I'd imagine that a pack up in the 300 level will run about 2,000,000 bitcoins or whatever currency we are using.

of course if biathlon is your thing, then you'll save lots of money.

[TheScorpion]

Originally Posted by Northendzone

^ start saving for the hockey ticket's now. I'd imagine that a pack up in the 300 level will run about 2,000,000 bitcoins or whatever currency we are using.

of course if biathlon is your thing, then you'll save lots of money.

It'll be worth it, for sure.

Unless we pull a Turin again. Or a Calgary 88.

[polak]

An article came out that said Shale producers have lowered their operating costs to under $40 a barrel. If that's true then by 2020 Calgary will be a ghost town and the Flames will be long gone.

This will be a non-issue

[CroFlames]

Originally Posted by GGG

Short track I think can be done in regular NA ice rinks. For Vancouver it was in Pacific Coliseum

Better off doing short track at Max Bell then. That is actually a good spectator rink.

[Resolute 14]

Originally Posted by TheScorpion

It'll be worth it, for sure.

Unless we pull a Turin again. Or a Calgary 88.

1988 was actually our second best medal year, ever, to that point. Everything Canada has done since in international winter sports is a direct consequence of the 1988 Olympics.

[getbak]

Originally Posted by Resolute 14

1988 was actually our second best medal year, ever, to that point. Everything Canada has done since in international winter sports is a direct consequence of the 1988 Olympics.

The biggest reason for Canada's improved performance at the Winter Games is that Canada does well in the sports that have been added to the Olympics since 1988.

In Sochi, Canada took home 10 gold, 10 silver, and 5 bronze. If you take out every sport that wasn't a full medal sport in Calgary, that number drops to 1 gold (hockey), 3 silver (1 speed skating, 2 figure skating), and 2 bronze (alpine & speed skating). The one gold medal would be for Men's Hockey, and even that wasn't the same type of tournament in Calgary as Sochi (both the structure of the tournament was different and Sochi had the inclusion of NHL players).

The addition of freestyle skiing, snowboarding, short track, and curling, plus adding women's competitions for hockey and bobsleigh, as well as NHL participation have all been the main cause of Canada's improved performance at the Winter Games since 1988.



The only two sports where Canada has directly benefitted from the facilities in Calgary are bobsleigh and speed skating. Prior to Calgary, Canada had only one medal in bobsleigh and 11 medals in speed skating (with 5 coming in 1932). Since Calgary, Canada has won 6 medals in bobsleigh and 24 in speed skating. Those numbers pale in comparison to the number of medals Canada has won in the new sports (28 in short track alone).