Calgary 2026 unveils $80 M McMahon renovation

CALGARY A potential Calgary bid for the 2026 Winter Games includes a plan to make the city’s aging football stadium more accessible to people with disabilities.

Fergal Duff, with the Calgary 2026 Olympic and Paralympic bid corporation, said renovations on McMahon Stadium are estimated to cost $80 million out of the $500 million earmarked for refurbishing existing venues.

Another $400 million is expected to be spent on a new field house and midsized arena.

“I truly believe that whatever good things we build, end up building us,” said Duff, the bid corporation’s director of venues, villages and capital infrastructure.

With just four days until a non-binding vote on whether the 1988 host city should ask for another turn, Calgary 2026 released mock-up images of what some revamped and new venues could look like.

Duff said structures between the columns at McMahon would be removed, doubling the size of its currently cramped circulation area. There would also be new washrooms and concession areas.

“It will really be a dramatic change in terms of what it will look like,” he said.

McMahon Stadium, home of the CFL’s Calgary Stampeders, was built in 1960 and was the venue for the opening and closing ceremonies during the 1988 Calgary Olympics.

The stadium, which currently seats around 35,000 and has not been renovated since 2005, would be used for the same purpose if Calgary ends up hosting the 2026 Games.

Multi-medal-winning biathlete and Nordic skier Mark Arendz, who was the flag bearer at the closing ceremony of the Pyeongchang Paralympic Games earlier this year, said the accessibility improvements would be meaningful.

“These minor adjustments will make a big difference in the lives of those who use it every day and all those generations to come for the next 30 years hopefully.”

Bid skeptics have questioned whether the investments being pitched as part of the bid would have been made anyway.