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

[Roughneck]

Another factor with the ski jumps is their amphitheater is where the moguls and aerials would end, which are much more popular events and provide a better bang for the buck to upgrade the space for those than spend money trying to get anything more out of the ski jumping area.

Having the out to hold those events at Whistler is definitely a freebie. Otherwise the best plan would involve trying to rig up something at the Canmore Nordic Centre, which would be good for future training and Nordic Combined stuffs, but not a best use of $.



Also "even the Oval is acceptable as-is."? How are the venues even comparable? The Oval is still a World Cup venue that has athletes setting and challenging world record times, and is an elite training centre.

The ski jumps are barely used, aren't used for competition, and aren't an elite training centre for anything. Of course the Oval is more acceptable as is.

[corporatejay]

Maybe just get rid of ski jumping, what a ridiculous sport.

[Locke]

Originally Posted by corporatejay

Maybe just get rid of ski jumping, what a ridiculous sport.

For shame good sir! For shame!

[Monahammer]

I wish we could re-purpose the Ski Jump Structures for something useful- growing up and even now they are a remarkable landmark and a vestige of our '88 glory. As far as building new ones I don't see why we can't just do it in Canmore at the nordic centre. Maybe we get some form of mass transit out to the mountains if this happens. Added benefit that international events can start to come back to the better side of the mountains

Calgary's most expensive condos with an unbeatable panoramic view?

[GordonBlue]

Originally Posted by sureLoss

Andrew Brown @browncbc
The IOC views the Saddledome as acceptable for Olympic hockey and figure skating, according to director of Calgary Olympic bid Kyle Ripley.

so having a budget Olympics will not get the city a new arena, then.
To me that the only reason to have the Olympics is to get new stuff, most importantly an arena.

why even bother, then?

[habernac]

Sammy Hudes‏ @SammyHudes 4h4 hours ago
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Sammy Hudes Retweeted Andrew Brown
Somewhere, Gary Bettman’s head is currently exploding.
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Andrew BrownVerified account @browncbc
The IOC views the Saddledome as acceptable for Olympic hockey and figure skating, according to director of Calgary Olympic bid Kyle Ripley.
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[Monahammer]

Originally Posted by GordonBlue

so having a budget Olympics will not get the city a new arena, then.
To me that the only reason to have the Olympics is to get new stuff, most importantly an arena.

why even bother, then?

IMO it's just posturing- the committee doesn't want to get dragged into the negotiations. Sure the saddledome is fine, but I would bet that new arena would be at the top or near the top of everyone's infrastructure items list in advance of the games. Whether or not CSEC is a party to construction of that building or just an eventual tenant would be the new debate.

[getbak]

We still need a second large arena. The Saddledome's suitability was never in question.

With the men's and women's hockey, figure skating, and short track, you can't have everything in one arena.

That's why 2026 makes sense for the timing. The new arena will be built and open by then but the Saddledome will still be functional. The new arena will host the hockey and the Saddledome will handle the figure skating and short track.

[Fuzz]

Originally Posted by corporatejay

Maybe just get rid of ski jumping, what a ridiculous sport.

We could modify it a bit, and just chuck them out of a helicopter.

[Locke]

Originally Posted by getbak

We still need a second large arena. The Saddledome's suitability was never in question.

With the men's and women's hockey, figure skating, and short track, you can't have everything in one arena.

That's why 2026 makes sense for the timing. The new arena will be built and open by then but the Saddledome will still be functional. The new arena will host the hockey and the Saddledome will handle the figure skating and short track.

The Corral is just fine.

[sureLoss]

Originally Posted by getbak

We still need a second large arena. The Saddledome's suitability was never in question.

With the men's and women's hockey, figure skating, and short track, you can't have everything in one arena.

That's why 2026 makes sense for the timing. The new arena will be built and open by then but the Saddledome will still be functional. The new arena will host the hockey and the Saddledome will handle the figure skating and short track.

John Shannon @JSportsnet
Chris Overholt of the COC tells PrimeTime Sports, the potential Olympic bid of 2026 for Calgary does not contemplate a new arena, at this point.

[Weitz]

Originally Posted by Monahammer

I wish we could re-purpose the Ski Jump Structures for something useful- growing up and even now they are a remarkable landmark and a vestige of our '88 glory. As far as building new ones I don't see why we can't just do it in Canmore at the nordic centre. Maybe we get some form of mass transit out to the mountains if this happens. Added benefit that international events can start to come back to the better side of the mountains

Calgary's most expensive condos with an unbeatable panoramic view?

Canmore wouldn't allow something like that. They can barely build new condos/housing.

[Robbob]

The Saddledome is acceptable in the same way the Corral was acceptable to host hockey games in 88 as a 'B' venue.

[Manhattanboy]

Probably belongs in the other thread but I am told at the Rotary Club luncheon today Ken King answered the inevitable arena question with "no news, no contact, nothing to update, file has been closed for some time blah blah...".

I hate that. FFS get in a room and talk.

[rohara66]

Originally Posted by sureLoss

John Shannon @JSportsnet
Chris Overholt of the COC tells PrimeTime Sports, the potential Olympic bid of 2026 for Calgary does not contemplate a new arena, at this point.

Of course it doesn't.... Nenshi wouldn't want the Flames to get a new arena under any sort of government funding model because then he wouldn't "win".

[CorbeauNoir]

Originally Posted by Roughneck

Also "even the Oval is acceptable as-is."? How are the venues even comparable? The Oval is still a World Cup venue that has athletes setting and challenging world record times, and is an elite training centre.

The ski jumps are barely used, aren't used for competition, and aren't an elite training centre for anything. Of course the Oval is more acceptable as is.

An Olympics bid in earlier years would have deemed the Oval's seating capacity to be insufficiently small and would have required either building a new facility or somehow substantially enlarging the existing one. And regarding it's use as a WC venue, I offer a direct quote from the aforementioned article:

"The overlay for hosting an Olympic Games is substantially larger than that of a World Cup," Ripley said.

The suitability of a venue for a WC event evidently has no particular bearing on it's suitability for a Olympics event. Thankfully under the current, more lenient IOC requirements nothing substantial would have to be done to the current Oval regardless.

So no I don't see any issue at all in making the comparison in infrastructure, especially when the supposed point of Calgary bidding at all was supposed to be on it's "budget" approach. What I wasn't aware of was the physical size of the towers themselves being insufficient.

[Monahammer]

Originally Posted by Weitz

Canmore wouldn't allow something like that. They can barely build new condos/housing.

This awful basterdization is a very quick mock up example- you use existing land by the Nordic Centre on the slope of three sisters. Accounting for some extra space I was more or less able to fit it in the cleft that 742 makes. You get the slope of the mountain to help make the jumps better, you can pour some more money into the Canmore nordic centre to revitalize it, and you don't have to touch the developable land that is in short supply.

[RM14]

#1, they will never ever allow ski jumps on the slopes of the three sisters. Also, Getting approval to chop down anything on the slopes of the Bow Valley in the Rocky Mountains is extremely challenging. #2, Th three Sisters is no where near the Nordic Centre.

It would be neat if they used the old miners ski area just above the Nordic Center. But, I don't think the town has an appetite to develop further up the mountain sides at all.

[CorbeauNoir]

Originally Posted by Monahammer

This awful basterdization is a very quick mock up example- you use existing land by the Nordic Centre on the slope of three sisters. Accounting for some extra space I was more or less able to fit it in the cleft that 742 makes. You get the slope of the mountain to help make the jumps better, you can pour some more money into the Canmore nordic centre to revitalize it, and you don't have to touch the developable land that is in short supply.

Eehh. My office is working on a house in Canmore atm, we've directly experienced neighbours legitimately freaking out and threatening court action over things like the possibility of the property having a steel staircase visible from their house. Telling the town that they're going to clear out half the mountainside and put up giant concrete obelisks as part of their vista is going to be...fun.

If the landings didn't eat up so much room I'd wonder what might be possible as far as temporary structures are concerned.

[Fuzz]

The bigger issue is that Canmore just doesn't have the capacity to add events. Any world cup type events that take place already turn the area into a gong show. They would pretty much be forced to put in a gondola or something from the townsite, and even then, where do people park? Where do all the athletes stay? In '88 a bare bones athlete's village was built out of ATCO trailers where the high school is now. I presume there are far more athletes and specific events than in '88 and probably more coaches support staff etc.

I see no reason to try to shoe horn it into the Nordic Centre, and frankly given the extremely limited use of the jump facility, using the Whistler location seems like a pretty good idea. Better to spend the money elsewhere.