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
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What were the objections back then? Always wondered why they didn't do it at Louise.
In the 80s there was a lot of pushback to holding events inside of a National Park.
This lead to the kerfuffle of Alpine being shifted to Mount Sparrowhawk and then finally Mount Allan after it was determined that, even though Sparrowhawk was a better location, Allan had better access.
At the risk of repeating myself, when people think of the costs they need to get out of their heads the thought that Summer Olympics = Winter Olympics.
Not only are there 3x as many events in the Summer Olympics, most of them need venues to be constructed (i.e. physical construction projects of buildings). Most of the Winter Olympics sports on the other hand rely more heavily on the outdoors. Only four sports are indoors (hockey, curling, figure skating, speed skating). That's not to say that the outdoor sports don't require structures to be built (ski jumping and bobsled come to mind), but the infrastructure requirements of the Winter Olympics are infinitely lower than the Summer Olympics.
Then add on the fact that they'd be even lower for Calgary which already has a bunch of those in place (most of the arenas for curling/hockey/figure skating, a speed skating facility, a ski hill with a highway to it, a Nordic centre with a highway to it) and we are light years ahead of somewhere like Sochi which started nearly from scratch in a summer vacation spot of all places.
Will there be costs, of course. But don't get confused with Sochi or Greece type costs.
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Also remember that in the future, those facilities are going to be rebuilt/upgraded/improved anyway. Calgary is a sporting hub where several athletes train, learn and progress.
The area already hosts annual world cups and competitions and will continue to do so. So it is not like any money spent would come out of the blue.
Of course there will be those that say "so what". But we all know those people would be the first to stand up and complain when an athlete from "Togo" or likewise wins an Olympic medal over a Canadian athlete who didn't get to benefit from modern training.
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I definitely think a reasonably priced Olympics is possible here, however, I don't think a total welfare-style Olympics would fly either. Places like Max Bell or the Corral are not going to cut it. While we don't need to have architectural masterpieces, I don't think those places really meet rec-center standards anymore, never mind the Olympics. I mean let's have a little pride.
The way I see it goes something like this...
New:
Hockey arena
Stadium for Opening Ceremonies (or heavily renovated McMahon)
Olympic Village (hello West Village!)
Ceremonial Plaza
Ski jumps
Possibly a secondary indoor facility for curling
Possibly new ski hill facilities
Upgrades:
Bobsled track - May be easier to rebuild (but use existing location)
Olympic Oval - Cosmetic/tech upgrades
Saddledome - Cosmetic upgrades
Canmore Nordic Centre - Probably cosmetic/facility upgrades
Possibly secondary Rink like Max Bell or Coral, but only with major upgrades
COP - Would probably need facility upgrades to meet higher standards
Winsport - Probably works as-is for something like short-track, secondary hockey games.
Hopefully we'd also be able to fast-track some significant infrastructure improvements to the city as well. Something like a West Village redevelopment for the Olympic Village (that are then turned into Condos) would be great. There are plans to upgrade Olympic Plaza as well, which could be a great candidate.
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At the risk of repeating myself, when people think of the costs they need to get out of their heads the thought that Summer Olympics = Winter Olympics.
Not only are there 3x as many events in the Summer Olympics, most of them need venues to be constructed (i.e. physical construction projects of buildings). Most of the Winter Olympics sports on the other hand rely more heavily on the outdoors. Only four sports are indoors (hockey, curling, figure skating, speed skating). That's not to say that the outdoor sports don't require structures to be built (ski jumping and bobsled come to mind), but the infrastructure requirements of the Winter Olympics are infinitely lower than the Summer Olympics.
Then add on the fact that they'd be even lower for Calgary which already has a bunch of those in place (most of the arenas for curling/hockey/figure skating, a speed skating facility, a ski hill with a highway to it, a Nordic centre with a highway to it) and we are light years ahead of somewhere like Sochi which started nearly from scratch in a summer vacation spot of all places.
Will there be costs, of course. But don't get confused with Sochi or Greece type costs.
Security is security.
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Oh absolutely. I'm in no way trying to say Calgary = free. And there is a very important conversation to be had around are those security costs plus the obviously non-zero infrastructure costs worth it. I'm just saying that to look at costs through Sochi or Greece sunglasses is incorrect.
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I definitely think a reasonably priced Olympics is possible here, however, I don't think a total welfare-style Olympics would fly either. Places like Max Bell or the Corral are not going to cut it. While we don't need to have architectural masterpieces, I don't think those places really meet rec-center standards anymore, never mind the Olympics. I mean let's have a little pride.
The way I see it goes something like this...
New:
Hockey arena
Stadium for Opening Ceremonies (or heavily renovated McMahon)
Olympic Village (hello West Village!)
Ceremonial Plaza
Ski jumps
Possibly a secondary indoor facility for curling
Possibly new ski hill facilities
I haven't gone through the whole thread but a positive thing that could come from hosting another winter Olympics is an upgrade to the Stampede grounds and finally the development of Stampede Trail. I could actually see the Stampede joining forces with the city and developing a Ceremonial Plaza type of venue to replace Olympic Plaza.
The Olympics have been hosted in Canada three times. Only seven cities have hosted the Olympics more than once.
It's weird to me that these exploratory bids seem to come up so often. I can't see the Olympics ever returning for a much, much longer time than it's been. It's a once in a lifetime thing.
The Olympics have been hosted in Canada three times. Only seven cities have hosted the Olympics more than once.
It's weird to me that these exploratory bids seem to come up so often. I can't see the Olympics ever returning for a much, much longer time than it's been. It's a once in a lifetime thing.
I can. Rio is teetering on the edge of being a major disaster, and the only bids for 2022 were Beijing and Almaty. If there is a similar lack of interest for 2026, Calgary could walk in and promote the facts that we've already hosted one of the most successful Games ever, and we are right on top of the US and all of its media money - and by 2026, it will have been 16 years since the Winter Olympics were played out at times Americans will be awake and watching.
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I can. Rio is teetering on the edge of being a major disaster, and the only bids for 2022 were Beijing and Almaty. If there is a similar lack of interest for 2026, Calgary could walk in and promote the facts that we've already hosted one of the most successful Games ever, and we are right on top of the US and all of its media money - and by 2026, it will have been 16 years since the Winter Olympics were played out at times Americans will be awake and watching.
Good point. I find it's much more enjoyable to watch events live rather than rebroadcasts or on the dvr.
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 couldn't see it being a cross country tournament. Remember that England is smaller than Southern Alberta.
^ Also, you'd completely destroy a soccer pitch in a few days if you played that many games in such a short time. A hockey rink has no such limitation.
If Toronto had won the 2024 Summer Games, one could practically guarantee the soccer tournament would have been spread through Toronto, Hamilton, Ottawa, Montreal.
