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

[Freeway]

Originally Posted by Bunk

^ I can tell you that this has been in the works for at least 4 years. A lot of preliminary behind the scenes work by CSTA, leading to this. It hasn't popped out of nowhere, but this is the first step in a public conversation about a bid.

I was thinking about venue needs - in Vancouver they had both Rogers arena and Pacific coliseum for the hockey, short track and figure skating events.

I always assumed you'd need two arenas to host these days - but for hockey would it be worthwhile doing a London 2012 soccer thing and have the hockey tournament all across the country? I think that would be kind of neat. Might eliminate the need for two arenas active during the olympics.

There have been whispers about this since at least around 2010, from what I can gather.

[sureLoss]

Projected Budget from Scott Dippel

[Resolute 14]

One of the things to consider in this process is the fact that the facilities from 1988 are aging. Many of them will need renovation or replacement regardless. It makes perfect sense to take this step at the very least, given the costs of such will be explored. Even if the city opts against moving beyond the exploratory stage, there is value to this process.

[GGG]

The only real losts costs will be the ski jump. The rest of it can be re-used after being refurbished. Vancouver did a good job with their oval which became a fantastic community facility afterwards.

So you work with the flames to build an arena, (Can the Saddledome last 10 yrs for the 2nd ice surface.)
You build that field house and put curling in it temporarily and retrofit afterwards
You refurbish the oval and ski jump to current standards
COP covers the Ski / Snow Board / Moguls and Nakiska is upgraded for the downhill again. And upgrade the Nordic Center in Canmore for the Ski / Biatholon.

We can do it for relatively low cost. Also we demand that we pay the IOC nothing to host the games and get full value from the TV deals and sponsorships to fund the games.

The IOC would like to have it here because the timezones work and its good for their image and they are running out of sites willing to pay for it. They asked us to bid. So we have a set of conditions and the IOC can decide if they are interested.

[Flash Walken]

Originally Posted by GGG

The only real losts costs will be the ski jump. The rest of it can be re-used after being refurbished. Vancouver did a good job with their oval which became a fantastic community facility afterwards.

So you work with the flames to build an arena, (Can the Saddledome last 10 yrs for the 2nd ice surface.)
You build that field house and put curling in it temporarily and retrofit afterwards
You refurbish the oval and ski jump to current standards
COP covers the Ski / Snow Board / Moguls and Nakiska is upgraded for the downhill again. And upgrade the Nordic Center in Canmore for the Ski / Biatholon.

We can do it for relatively low cost. Also we demand that we pay the IOC nothing to host the games and get full value from the TV deals and sponsorships to fund the games.

The IOC would like to have it here because the timezones work and its good for their image and they are running out of sites willing to pay for it. They asked us to bid. So we have a set of conditions and the IOC can decide if they are interested.

LOL!

It's free to refurbish olympic venues? Sign me up!

[Blankcanvas]

I think this is exciting for the City and totally support it. Yes there are potentially huge financial implications but it is right to spend the $5m now to complete a proper analysis. Renovating the old facilities could provide many of the required venues and the Olympic legacy for Calgary will continue for future generations.

[Tyler]

Originally Posted by Bunk

^ I can tell you that this has been in the works for at least 4 years. A lot of preliminary behind the scenes work by CSTA, leading to this. It hasn't popped out of nowhere, but this is the first step in a public conversation about a bid.

I was thinking about venue needs - in Vancouver they had both Rogers arena and Pacific coliseum for the hockey, short track and figure skating events.

I always assumed you'd need two arenas to host these days - but for hockey would it be worthwhile doing a London 2012 soccer thing and have the hockey tournament all across the country? I think that would be kind of neat. Might eliminate the need for two arenas active during the olympics.

Why would we want to ship off hockey (the most popular winter sport by far) off to other cities? There is no reason we can't host all of it here.

Keep the Dome til 2026, build a new arena facility, and have the loser countries no one cares about play at WinSport.

[CorsiHockeyLeague]

It's probably do-able at a reasonable rate and would also involve a bunch of infrastructure spending that'd be good for the city overall. The thing is, while some places do the Games in a hilariously stupid manner (Sochi), it's possible to not make them a boondoggle. Even Vancouver 2010 was done fairly haphazardly in many ways, but it still worked out reasonably well for them. Just a matter of not going nuts and throwing money everywhere.

[RM14]

Originally Posted by Tyler

Why would we want to ship off hockey (the most popular winter sport by far) off to other cities? There is no reason we can't host all of it here.

It won't be even close to the most popular Olympic winter sport in 2026 if NHL players do not participate.

[Badgers Nose]

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

[Resolute 14]

Originally Posted by RM14

It won't be even close to the most popular Olympic winter sport in 2026 if NHL players do not participate.

Oh yes it will.

[Ruttiger]

Originally Posted by RM14

It won't be even close to the most popular Olympic winter sport in 2026 if NHL players do not participate.

Do you really think that if the Olympics are back in North America that all parties wouldn't find a way to ensure NHL players participate?

[Ruttiger]

Originally Posted by Bunk

I always assumed you'd need two arenas to host these days - but for hockey would it be worthwhile doing a London 2012 soccer thing and have the hockey tournament all across the country? I think that would be kind of neat. Might eliminate the need for two arenas active during the olympics.

Or given the new building in Edmonton, host it all in Alberta like the WJC has done.

[Senator Clay Davis]

Originally Posted by Ruttiger

Do you really think that if the Olympics are back in North America that all parties wouldn't find a way to ensure NHL players participate?

Is the IOC going to all of a sudden accept a much lower cut of the money? Start paying for the insurance risks? Well we all know the answer to those are no, so why would the NHL go back to them? Sucks but the World Cup is what they're rolling with now. Besides going back to the Olympics devalues the World Cup even more, so it really won't happen in the future unless the NHL gets more money.

[Resolute 14]

Originally Posted by Ruttiger

Do you really think that if the Olympics are back in North America that all parties wouldn't find a way to ensure NHL players participate?

It's not even that.

Most of the rest of the Olympic events are sports that Canadians often don't care too much about competed by athletes they know nothing about.

Hockey would still be the sport Canadians are passionate about, even if they would generally be ignorant of the players. The 1988 games was mostly players nobody cared about, but demand was so high that CODA paid money to push forward the installation of the 300 level seating at the Saddledome to get the capacity up from 16,000 to 20,000.

[craigwd]

Originally Posted by GGG

The only real losts costs will be the ski jump. The rest of it can be re-used after being refurbished. Vancouver did a good job with their oval which became a fantastic community facility afterwards.

So you work with the flames to build an arena, (Can the Saddledome last 10 yrs for the 2nd ice surface.)
You build that field house and put curling in it temporarily and retrofit afterwards
You refurbish the oval and ski jump to current standards
COP covers the Ski / Snow Board / Moguls and Nakiska is upgraded for the downhill again. And upgrade the Nordic Center in Canmore for the Ski / Biatholon.

We can do it for relatively low cost. Also we demand that we pay the IOC nothing to host the games and get full value from the TV deals and sponsorships to fund the games.

The IOC would like to have it here because the timezones work and its good for their image and they are running out of sites willing to pay for it. They asked us to bid. So we have a set of conditions and the IOC can decide if they are interested.

I would almost guarantee 100% that Lake Louise would be the ski venue this time around. The objections of 35 years ago have fallen by the wayside.

[Hack&Lube]

Let's make a 600 KPH high speed rail between Calgary and Edmonton and we'll host the Alberta Winter Olympics!

[Hot_Flatus]

I am on the fence on the whole thing but find this "study" to be a complete farce. What a waste of money when this is something that has clearly already been decided by the powers that be. Nothing short of complete public outrage will stop this bid now so why put on this charade that we are still carefully weighing our options? No matter which way this goes, it's going to cost hundreds of millions of dollars. Too many people in the city like Ken King would be worried about the optics of hosting the Olympics in facilities like the Oval etc that aren't brand new, even with the proposed refurbishing.

In typical City of Calgary fashion, taxpayers can likely expect a mandatory Olympic fund levy to be placed on their utility bills very soon to pay for all this "studying" that needs to be done.

[Torture]

Originally Posted by craigwd

I would almost guarantee 100% that Lake Louise would be the ski venue this time around. The objections of 35 years ago have fallen by the wayside.

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

[sureLoss]

Rob Kerr @FAN960RKerr
3pm - Joining us in studio is Marco DeIaco from the Calgary Sport Tourism Authority to talk about studying a possible #Olympic bid.