THRIFTY OLYMPIC BID MAKES SENSE
B.C. group proposes hosting 2030 Games without spending dime on infrastructures
Calgarians celebrated their city's Olympic status ad nauseam for decades, but the idea of actually hosting another Winter Games in 2026 was rejected soundly in a 2018 plebiscite.
The 56 per cent “no” vote was rooted in serious resistance to a $5.2-billion budget that called for $2.875 billion in public funding.
There may well be more tolerance for a second staging of the five-ring circus in Vancouver in 2030, because the proposal being shopped around that city today is vastly different than the plan for 2010 and Calgary's vision for 2026.
First, there won't be a capital budget.
“There will be no taxpayer money requested for venue construction. We have what we need. Indeed, more than we need,” John Furlong told the Vancouver Board of Trade on Friday. “Neither B.C. (nor) Canada will be asked to spend any money on Games infrastructure — either to build or to convert facilities for Games use — an opposite strategy to 2010.”
He would know. He was president of the Vancouver Organizing Committee (VANOC) for the 2010 Olympics. He's now spearheading a movement, because it's not a bid yet, to make B.C. 2030 a regional reality.
“From three B.C. communities, as was the case in 2010, to as many as eight or nine, provided minimum venue and hosting requirements can be achieved,” he said.
Vancouver, Whistler and Richmond would once again be tapped to play host to hockey, figure skating, ski jumping, luge, skeleton, bobsled and long track speedskating, but organizers want to spread the Games around the province as much as possible. The Island, Okanagan, Cariboo and Kootenay regions will surely be atop the organizers' wish list.
Any communities aspiring to join the Olympic family could perhaps access existing infrastructure programs from government if venue improvements are necessary, but the organizing committee would not be issuing requests for capital.
Furlong also said the estimated $2.2-billion operations budget would be covered by television rights, corporate sponsorships, IOC marketing, ticket sales and other fundraising. But he doesn't include the cost of security in that figure. “An agreement with the federal government on security will be required.”
That will be pricey, but obviously necessary. And if that sinks a potential bid, so be it. But there seems to be a value play in a regional Olympics that could spread tourist dollars around the province and potentially spur the building of much-needed affordable housing units — used first as athletes' villages — or the completion of another Vancouver transit line. That kind of thing happened in 2010.
Those Games were a success by most definitions. There was no economic hangover and the purpose-built venues are still serving their communities well. What's more, Furlong said VANOC leaders want to take another run at it and their expertise could shrink the time and cost of organizing a 2030 bid and, if successful, the Olympics.
Those Games are nine years away and this isn't even a bid today. Should it progress to that point, the formal bidding process is expected to cost less than $3 million, down from a prohibitive $36 million for Vancouver 2010.
For 2030, there may be rival bids from Sapporo, Salt Lake
City and Barcelona/pyrenees, but Furlong has confidence in Vancouver's prospects.
“No winter country has ever bid from such a position of strength before.”
Furlong will need the blessing of the provincial government — and likely a financial guarantee that organizers will pledge not to use — but the decision to proceed with a bid rests with the Canadian Olympic Committee, and Furlong said the COC likes the concept of a regional bid. And the decision to award a Games goes to the IOC, which Furlong said is “very enthusiastic” about another bid from B.C.
“So we feel the door is wide open to us to win if we have the desire to go for it.”