Mayor doesn’t want to spend more than province on 2026 Games

The mayor of Calgary says the city shouldn’t contribute more than the province of Alberta to host the 2026 Winter Games.

Alberta has committed $700 million if Calgary bids for and wins the right to host the 2026 Olympic and Paralympic Games.

The federal government won’t provide more than $1.5 billion under a policy for hosting international sport events, and has yet to state how much money it would put in.

“I think if you’re looking at the city putting in $800 million, more than the province, that is not a good deal,” Naheed Nenshi said Monday.

By that rationale, the numbers don’t quite add up to the city and provincial and federal governments producing $3 billion in public investment the bid corporation Calgary 2026 asked for in the $5.2 billion total price tag.

There is a large moving part in Calgary’s sports landscape, however, that could inject wiggle room into the proposed 2026 budget.

Nenshi has questioned whether there is a need for a $100-million mid-size arena in Calgary 2026’s draft host plan if terms for a new NHL arena which isn’t part of the host plan - are agreed upon.

Both Nenshi and Calgary 2026 board chair Scott Hutcheson say work is ongoing on finding cost savings.

“Every good idea from here to 2026 would be explored,” Hutcheson said.

“As with every other Olympics between the time of a bid and the time of putting on a games, you want to make sure you’ve looked at every idea, challenged it, challenged the costs and try to do a better job over seven years, between a bid awarded and a bid execution.”

Calgary city council could pull the plug on a bid at any time, but is unlikely to do so before a Nov. 13 plebiscite asking Calgarians if they want to host the Winter Games or not.

The International Olympic Committee will accept 2026 bids Jan. 11. The election of the host city is in June.