Olympic bid given more time
Possible plan to host is feasible but needs more study
City council agreed Monday to give bureaucrats an extra week to review the work of a group which, after labouring more than 10 months at a cost of $3 million, has concluded it’s too early to say if Calgary should bid for the 2026 Olympic Games.
Formed last September and headed by former Calgary police chief Rick Hanson, the bid exploration group said Monday a repeat Winter Games in Calgary is unconditionally feasible but more time is needed to determine if it would be prudent to pursue an event the group estimates will cost $4.6 billion.
“Our committee found that the answer to the question of feasibility — ‘Can we host the Games?’ — is clearly yes,” said Hanson, chair of the Calgary Bid Exploration Committee.
“But the question of ‘Should we bid?’ requires more work in light of new information.”
The conclusion comes as the International Olympic Committee recently shifted its deadlines for the 2026 Winter Games, giving cities more time to study significant changes in the candidature requirements and yet-to-be-released host city requirements.
“They’ve extended the period, not because they weren’t organized but they see this as an opportunity for every city to look at an Olympic bid and see what makes sense for their city, as opposed to trying to squeeze into the Olympic pigeonhole,” Tricia Smith, president of the Canadian Olympic Committee and a new member of the IOC, told reporters.
“I’m very biased but I think Calgary would do a terrific job,” added Smith, a four-time Olympian.
Grilled on the soaring costs attached to hosting the Games and an international committee that has promised reforms, Hanson told council he has no reason to doubt the sincerity of the IOC.
Council agreed in a 13-2 vote Monday to give bureaucrats an extra week to study the bid exploration group’s work and recommend to council what should happen next — pull the plug altogether on the bid exploration group or ask members to continue exploring a bid using $2 million in unspent funds. Only councillors Druh Farrell and Sean Chu opposed the additional time.
“If there’s more work to be done, we’re prepared to take on that work. ... We came in well under budget, so the ability to take on additional work, if that’s what’s desired, is something we can do,” Hanson told reporters on Monday.
Ultimately it will be up to council members to vote yes or no on pursuing a bid, a decision Mayor Naheed Nenshi suspects won’t happen until months after the October municipal election, when more details are released by the IOC.
“We won’t understand the financial requirements until the IOC releases a draft host city contract, which I understand will not happen until next spring, after the Pyeongchang Olympics,” Nenshi said.
The bid exploration group has generated more than 5,400 pages of work to date on an Olympics they say would cost $4.6 billion (excluding such critical infrastructure as a new arena). So far, the public has only been privy to a few hundred redacted pages of that work.
The city’s chief financial officer, Eric Sawyer, said Monday a potential Olympic Winter Games could take the city close to, if not over, its debt limit.
“There’s a wide range of scenarios and impacts that could play in this, but it definitely has the potential to put us close to, or over, debt limits. But there’s a lot of assumptions that need to be clarified, scrutinized, further work (to be) done,” Sawyer said.