Olympics 2026 Potential Bid Thread

[suburbia]

Originally Posted by canucklehead2

Apparently after Sochi and London (as well as Rio) the taste for mega-Olympics each bigger than the last is no longer popular with IOC top brass. What they want are smaller but sold-out venues, intimate and well-attended.

Yes - I've heard this repeatedly, though I don't think they mean micro-venues either. Even though there were many events at Rio that were not sold out, it is notable that their costs were about $12B, substantially down from Beijing and London.

[canucklehead2]

You're 100% right... I think they mean a return to the sizes common during the more successful games i.e. the 1984 Los Angeles- 2000 Sydney years... All of those games were financially successful (at least from a games perspective)... Winter comparisons would be Calgary, Salt Lake City, Nagano, Lillehammer I am sure...

Otherwise the only bidders will be those crazy autocratic nations who use the games for political purposes and are willing to pay any price... I'm looking at you Kazakhstan, Qatar, Russia, China, etc.

[suburbia]

Originally Posted by canucklehead2

You're 100% right... I think they mean a return to the sizes common during the more successful games i.e. the 1984 Los Angeles- 2000 Sydney years... All of those games were financially successful (at least from a games perspective)... Winter comparisons would be Calgary, Salt Lake City, Nagano, Lillehammer I am sure...

Otherwise the only bidders will be those crazy autocratic nations who use the games for political purposes and are willing to pay any price... I'm looking at you Kazakhstan, Qatar, Russia, China, etc.

Another failure was Montreal, so it is not that the fails only happen with crazy autocratic nations (or did I open a can of worms?).

[MalcolmTucker]

[del]

[The Chemist]

I'd love to see Calgary host again. The city pulled the Olympics out of the dumps in 1988, and it'd be great for the city, and the Olympic movement as a whole, if they could do it again in 2026.

[canucklehead2]

Yeah, we can say Calgary was a complete success but Montreal and Vancouver not so much (at least financially). Although I think the worst of the Vancouver financial damage was to due with the Athlete's Village on False Creek South... Personally I was a fan of a Quebec City bid (despite the lack of a proper alpine venue) in the past but given that there are probably a hell of a lot of non-starters moving forward down east, why not try and relive some our best moments as a city, province and nation?

[NetMapel]

Originally Posted by canucklehead2

Yeah, we can say Calgary was a complete success but Montreal and Vancouver not so much (at least financially). Although I think the worst of the Vancouver financial damage was to due with the Athlete's Village on False Creek South... Personally I was a fan of a Quebec City bid (despite the lack of a proper alpine venue) in the past but given that there are probably a hell of a lot of non-starters moving forward down east, why not try and relive some our best moments as a city, province and nation?

I'm not really aware of financial problem for Vancouver during 2010. The athlete village and all that all eventually got sold for a nice profit. We are officially debt-free of all Vancouver 2010 costs in 2014

[suburbia]

Originally Posted by MalcolmTucker

Was it really a failure? Setting the budget before the oil crisis and 70s inflation hit was the real problem there.

A lot of whether the games are viewed as good or not today seems to be adherence to the original budget, which is projecting out ten years. Get one variable wrong and you're up the creek.

A $1.5B stadium in 1976 was a loser of an idea - and one that didn't work how it was supposed to needing repairs to fix designed in faults. The roof still doesn't work how it was supposed to - and they only completed it in 1987. Absolute disaster. It still cannot be used all year round, and events must be canceled if there is one inch of rain. The roof has thousands of tears. Massive chunks of the stadium has fallen on multiple occasions. We talk about stadia in other constituencies that have become deserted. Here is one that is not used for professional football, soccer nor baseball. It was bloody $1.5B! The lights remain on more as a result of tourist income, who want to see the disaster themselves. To be fair, they didn't intend to build a stadium that was $1.5B. The original budget was $134M - since then it has been called "The Big Owe". Arguably, Rio did better than Montreal.

Vancouver was a success on a different level in that community engagement and the number of locals that came out and enjoyed the public aspects of the games was really exceptional. Vancouver solidified itself as a second-tier world city as a result of the Olympics. People know Vancouver - where as Calgary is hit and miss.

[Socguy]

The Calgary Olympic Bid Exploration Committee talked to the CBC eyeopener today. Nothing firm yet but the single biggest cost of the Vancouver Olympics was security... in the 1 Billion range for the games. For a potential Calgary bid, the cost is unknown at this point.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgar...2026-1.4009255

[MalcolmTucker]

[del]

[mytwocents]

Originally Posted by MalcolmTucker

Was it really a failure? Setting the budget before the oil crisis and 70s inflation hit was the real problem there.

A lot of whether the games are viewed as good or not today seems to be adherence to the original budget, which is projecting out ten years. Get one variable wrong and you're up the creek.

We actually studied the Montreal Olympics in one of my engineering classes to demonstrate how the stadium at least was a complete planning and financial failure.

[PPAR]

Originally Posted by suburbia

A $1.5B stadium in 1976 was a loser of an idea - and one that didn't work how it was supposed to needing repairs to fix designed in faults. The roof still doesn't work how it was supposed to - and they only completed it in 1987. Absolute disaster. It still cannot be used all year round, and events must be canceled if there is one inch of rain. The roof has thousands of tears. Massive chunks of the stadium has fallen on multiple occasions. We talk about stadia in other constituencies that have become deserted. Here is one that is not used for professional football, soccer nor baseball. It was bloody $1.5B! The lights remain on more as a result of tourist income, who want to see the disaster themselves. To be fair, they didn't intend to build a stadium that was $1.5B. The original budget was $134M - since then it has been called "The Big Owe". Arguably, Rio did better than Montreal.

Vancouver was a success on a different level in that community engagement and the number of locals that came out and enjoyed the public aspects of the games was really exceptional. Vancouver solidified itself as a second-tier world city as a result of the Olympics. People know Vancouver - where as Calgary is hit and miss.

The Montreal debacle was more than a miscalculation. The whole stadium project was rife with corruption and incompetence. Concrete for the stadium was frequently redirected to private projects, there was no financial oversight and any invoice submitted was just paid without question. It was just a giant cash cow for what had long been a corrupt industry. Nobody cared about doing things right.
It is a pretty low bar to clear to avoid another 1976 games. All you need is some basic competence.

[technomad]

Originally Posted by MalcolmTucker

Many security costs are federal. Venue security and police are bid committee and city. Will have to build a security village too as can't bring in cruise ships.

Firepark would be perfect for this IMO.

Excellent road access, heavy rail on site. If needed, Barlow trail could be configured as a high security corridor direct to the south end of the airport.

Plus the site could be taken on by DND once the games are complete to replace some older facilities.

[shreddog]

Originally Posted by suburbia

Vancouver was a success on a different level in that community engagement and the number of locals that came out and enjoyed the public aspects of the games was really exceptional. Vancouver solidified itself as a second-tier world city as a result of the Olympics. People know Vancouver - where as Calgary is hit and miss.

Not wanting to take anything away from Vancouver, but from everything I have seen, read, heard, Calgary is still considered the benchmark for community engagement. I've been living in Vancouver for 6 months and have yet to find anyone who volunteered during the Olympics, whereas I still know many people in Calgary who have appreciation certificates hanging on their walls.

Interesting that you're comparing the importance/visibility of a city of 2.2M hosting the Olympics to that of a city of 600K. And let's not forget the change in the role of media in the 22 years. But I guess that really reflects more on you than anything else, eh?

[shreddog]

Originally Posted by technomad

Firepark would be perfect for this IMO.
..
Plus the site could be taken on by DND once the games are complete to replace some older facilities.

For what? DND has minimal presence in Calgary.

I've been spending a fair bit of time in Vancouver's Olympic village lately, and I'm not really sold on the idea of building a new neighbourhood from scratch. While there are many people there, it still doesn't have the energy of other places in Van, and I'm not sure that that will change in a short time (though I am likely wrong).

For me the best place to build an Olympic village would be East Village/Victoria Park - on lands not owned by Stampede, just to kick start the area to the next level. You've got rail access, close to DT and lots and lots of empty land.

[MalcolmTucker]

If a developer can deliver a neighbourhood type village for media, security, or athletes for less than building an ATCO camp then they would win tenders. What is now News on broadcast hill (now condos) was the media village. Athletes were mostly at the university (not sure could really justify shutting down for 5 or 6 weeks to support it this time around).

In old newspapers the media village ended up in a totally different place from the bid book and the winning site was a last minute entry- Point McKay was the preferred site for most of the process iirc.

[shreddog]

Originally Posted by MalcolmTucker

If a developer can deliver a neighbourhood type village for media, security, or athletes for less than building an ATCO camp then they would win tenders. What is now News on broadcast hill (now condos) was the media village. Athletes were mostly at the university (not sure could really justify shutting down for 5 or 6 weeks to support it this time around).
...

I wonder if something could be done with the Dominion bridge lands in Ramsay for the media village and athletes village in the lands north of Stampede? Central and book ending Stampede.

[Fuzz]

Convert empty office towers to an athlete's village. Sell as condos after. Boom, so many problems solved.

[UofC.engineer]

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgar...ison-1.4093542

Turns out Calgary needs two full sized arenas.

Seating capacity:

Saddledome: 19,289
Markin MacPhail Centre: 3,922
Max Bell: 2,121
Father David Bauer: 1,750

[suburbia]

Originally Posted by shreddog

Interesting that you're comparing the importance/visibility of a city of 2.2M hosting the Olympics to that of a city of 600K. And let's not forget the change in the role of media in the 22 years.

That's a good point.

Originally Posted by shreddog

But I guess that really reflects more on you than anything else, eh?

Not sure why that was necessary or even what you exactly meant by that.