2026 Olympics- Calgary votes no- 56%

[Senator Clay Davis]

Originally Posted by GirlySports

That's BS from the IOC. Sochi built all their stuff after they won the bid. Pyeongchang too.

It's an attempt to secure more bids. Like because more cities competing against each other likely yields more money for the IOC. If Calgary was the only real bid and wanting to build 99% new, the IOC wasn't passing on that.

[Ozy_Flame]

Originally Posted by GirlySports

That's BS from the IOC. Sochi built all their stuff after they won the bid. Pyeongchang too.

Both won before Agenda 2020, I believe, which somewhat changed the IOC's stance on the matter.

[PepsiFree]

Originally Posted by GirlySports

That's BS from the IOC. Sochi built all their stuff after they won the bid. Pyeongchang too.

Perhaps they were trying to avoid the games being as costly as they have been.

Originally Posted by GirlySports

Both can be true. Things for accessibility should be done with public money and donors. Things done for business and entertainment should be done with more private money and investment. I was not advocating the city give the Flames an arena. There is a deal there, negotiate the Flames down.

I brought up the entertainment district was a better tourism play than the Olympics. I'm replying to different posts.

But why is the city giving any money to an entertainment venue. And how much is too much? Do you really think the Flames are going to give them a deal?

And in what world is an entertainment district be better for tourism than an olympics? How many medium-large cities have you visited for their “entertainment district”?

[Table 5]

I find this to be a really big missed opportunity. Sometimes when you're down, you just need something to rally around, regardless of the exact dollars and cents. This could've been that opportunity to have something to look forward as a community, to and build up our confidence again. Calgary was in an even bigger economic malaise when they bid for the 88 Olympics, and they chose to push forward despite things being pretty grim. Today, we're choosing to do nothing and keep on wallowing.

[Ozy_Flame]

Originally Posted by PepsiFree

And in what world is an entertainment district be better for tourism than an olympics? How many medium-large cities have you visited for their “entertainment district”?

Quoted for truth. Entertainment Districts are nice, but they aren' the reason to come to a City unless it's cream of the crop (e.g. Las Vegas). Entertainment Districts are something you discover and enjoy after you arrive, it's the big events that get people there. Stampede is certainly one of them; Olympics could have been another.

[Weitz]

Originally Posted by PepsiFree

Perhaps they were trying to avoid the games being as costly as they have been.



But why is the city giving any money to an entertainment venue. And how much is too much? Do you really think the Flames are going to give them a deal?

And in what world is an entertainment district be better for tourism than an olympics? How many medium-large cities have you visited for their “entertainment district”?

How many cities have you visited because they hosted the Olympics?

[GirlySports]

Originally Posted by PepsiFree

Perhaps they were trying to avoid the games being as costly as they have been.



But why is the city giving any money to an entertainment venue. And how much is too much? Do you really think the Flames are going to give them a deal?

And in what world is an entertainment district be better for tourism than an olympics? How many medium-large cities have you visited for their “entertainment district”?

I think it should all be private money but after the Edmonton and Quebec deals that's not possible in Canada.

I've visited a few nice entertainment districts for sports Seattle, Denver, Pittsburgh, Baltimore Harbour.

[PepsiFree]

Originally Posted by Weitz

How many cities have you visited because they hosted the Olympics?

London.

Have you ever even considered going to a non-major city for it’s “entertainment district”?

It’s a nice to have, but it’s no better than an Olympics (which we naturally breed the same thing anyway).

[PepsiFree]

Originally Posted by GirlySports

I think it should all be private money but after the Edmonton and Quebec deals that's not possible in Canada.

I've visited a few nice entertainment districts for sports Seattle, Denver, Pittsburgh, Baltimore Harbour.

And you went to those cities specifically to check out their entertainment districts?

[Ashasx]

Originally Posted by GirlySports

That's BS from the IOC. Sochi built all their stuff after they won the bid. Pyeongchang too.

Not all of those developments were included as part of the official bid, and Bidco said they simply could not speculate which additional developments would arise following a successful bid.

And as Ozy mentions, the bid requirements have changed a bit.

[Parallex]

Originally Posted by Flames0910

Province screwed Calgary council over hard.
1) they came in with less money than was expected
2) they would not backstop overruns like B.C.
3) they came out with their number early and alone rather than with the city and feds
4) they made itheir funding conditional on a plebiscite that council did not want.

All that is true but really the city should have had funding and cost overrun agreements in place before they even scheduled the plebiscite. I feel like in the end the City/Bidco had details (if you can even call them that) in way to late. To much confusion and uncertainty to late in the game.

[Barnes]

Originally Posted by GirlySports

I think there is. That's what Davison is working on now. I think it's an arena and Fieldhouse. Stamps are SOL.

Why would CSEC give a flying fata about a fieldhouse?

[Fuzz]

Originally Posted by PepsiFree

And you went to those cities specifically to check out their entertainment districts?

They say that once you've seen one Hard Rock Cafe, you've seen them all, but they really are quite nuanced. It's worth hitting them up and buying a T-shirt in every city!

[nfotiu]

Originally Posted by PepsiFree

London.

Have you ever even considered going to a non-major city for it’s “entertainment district”?

It’s a nice to have, but it’s no better than an Olympics (which we naturally breed the same thing anyway).

Are you saying you chose to go to London (not during the Olympics), but because they hosted the Olympics? That seems odd.

We go to small/medium sized cities all the time for short vacations and often because of entertainment/restaurant districts. Not one of them I can think of was artificially built around a sports stadium though. Those are usually awful and the areas we try to stay away from.

[Stay Golden]

CP's smaller sample poll was pretty accurate.

My stance i would have voted yes if the Feds and NDP would have NOT offered what appeared to be a bare minimum and instead really strongly backed Calgarians on a 5 billion plus estimated price tag.
Reality is Calgary would have been on the hook for probably 3 billion which simply is not fair for the Federal and Provincial governments to expect from a economically struggling city. Personally I am not convinced the Feds or our Provincial NDP were really committed to putting Calgary in a strong position to win the bid without a massive debt load to Calgary.

One thing that I truly believe if this was Edmonton wanting to host the NDP would have offered a lot more and if this was in Quebec the Feds would have approved whatever they needed.

[Weitz]

Originally Posted by PepsiFree

London.

Have you ever even considered going to a non-major city for it’s “entertainment district”?

It’s a nice to have, but it’s no better than an Olympics (which we naturally breed the same thing anyway).

If by entertainment district you include rinks and stadiums:

Seattle, Dallas, Kansas City, Denver, New Orleans etc.. Lots of places.

I would say I am about 100x more likely to travel somewhere for an event at an event center than because they hosted the Olympics.

Sochi, Pyongcheng, Nagano, Salt Lake city... No interest at all in visiting. Hell the last time I went to Vancouver was to go to an event at their event center.

[calgarygeologist]

Originally Posted by GirlySports

I think there is. That's what Davison is working on now. I think it's an arena and Fieldhouse. Stamps are SOL.

I would be fine with a new fieldhouse/arena development at Foothills. Get rid of the ball stadium, the two rinks there and the athletic park and build one huge facility for field games, the Flames and a new rink for smaller crowds like the Hitmen and Roughnecks. The location isn't downtown but I am fine with that.

[Ozy_Flame]

Originally Posted by Weitz

If by entertainment district you include rinks and stadiums:

Seattle, Dallas, Kansas City, Denver, New Orleans etc.. Lots of places.

I would say I am about 100x more likely to travel somewhere for an event at an event center than because they hosted the Olympics.

Sochi, Pyongcheng, Nagano, Salt Lake city... No interest at all in visiting. Hell the last time I went to Vancouver was to go to an event at their event center.

You go to Seattle or Dallas because of rinks or stadiums?

That seems highly suspect, considering it's the sports teams using those facilities that you are likely going to see - assuming you fly to other cities to watch sports.

You also selectively left out London, Rio, Athens, Beijing and Sydney if we're not discriminating between Summer and Winter.

[Nancy]

Originally Posted by calgarygeologist

Someone at my work this morning joked that Calgary was on it's way to becoming Detroit 2.0.

If anything, a yes vote would have accelerated us further down Detroit's path, because what did Detroit in was a combination of economic decay, overspending and high taxes. The expanding size of civic government that is going on presently here is exactly the sort of thing that exacerbated Detroits decline, and while big capital projects provide stimulus over the short term, the debt servicing costs could ultimately kill Calgarys competitiveness and fiscal flexibility.

https://www.freep.com/story/news/loc...-and/77152028/

[Fuzz]

Originally Posted by Weitz

If by entertainment district you include rinks and stadiums:

Seattle, Dallas, Kansas City, Denver, New Orleans etc.. Lots of places.

I would say I am about 100x more likely to travel somewhere for an event at an event center than because they hosted the Olympics.

Sochi, Pyongcheng, Nagano, Salt Lake city... No interest at all in visiting. Hell the last time I went to Vancouver was to go to an event at their event center.

Wasn't that built for the Olympics?