ACCOUNTING FOR OLYMPIC EFFECT
Calgary’s bid for the 2026 Winter Games about more than just dollars and cents
In Edmonton, the city that the 2026 Olympics forgot, there is Rogers Place — once a highly divisive discussion — that is now a highly attractive driver of economic activity both inside and outside of Oilers owner Daryl Katz’s bulging wallet.
In Calgary, the city that might double down on its first Olympic experience in 1988 — a Nov. 13 plebiscite should provide clarity — the 2026 Games provoke a highly divisive discussion. One side promises a highly attractive driver of economic activity, the other disputes the economic impact, envisions massive cost overruns, doesn’t trust the International Olympic Committee and probably doesn’t even appreciate the spectacle that is doubles luge.
Valid points, except for luge, which is breathtaking. In Edmonton, the taxpayers’ share of costs for the downtown arena and surrounding infrastructure rose to $312.7 million, more than half the budget of $613.7 million. Should Calgarians vote to proceed with the Olympic bid and should it be successful, the Games will cost the city’s taxpayers at least $390 million, about eight per cent of the $5-billion budget. It will surely be more when debt-service costs are folded into the mix; even more yet when discretionary funds are spent to make the Games accessible to Calgarians who cannot afford a ticket, capital cost overruns eat up the $900-million contingency fund and the $200-million insurance policy is secured, although neither BidCo executives nor city officials are even sure they can lock down the $20-million premium they have been touting. And even more yet when you consider the Alberta government is kicking in $700 million and Ottawa is ponying up $1.453 billion and Calgarians pay income taxes to fund both governments. For their money, Edmontonians got a shiny shrine to the ghosts of Oilers past and a playpen for Oilers present, not to mention a swell concert venue, an adjacent community rink and the single most influential catalyst for the revitalization of what had been a moribund section of downtown.
With NHL tickets at astronomical levels and concert tickets following suit, there is a chance many Edmonton taxpayers will never set foot in Rogers Place, but they may well derive joy or wages or both from the full bars and restaurants and the ascending office towers that the arena has sparked. According to Calgary BidCo officials, there will be no Olympic curling or hockey in Edmonton, which reeks of petty rivalry. And so far there is no attached emotional legacy here either and won’t be until Connor McDavid leads the Oilers to the 2022 Stanley Cup title over captain William Nylander and the Toronto Maple Leafs.
For their money, Calgarians will get a 17-day festival of luge, bobsled, hockey, speed and figure skating, a new field house, new 5,000-seat arena, extended use of refurbished venues like McMahon Stadium and the Saddledome, some new housing and temporary construction jobs. How many Calgarians will experience a direct benefit from the Games beyond those who compete, coach, officiate, volunteer or watch? Well, there will be suitably inspired 10-year-olds in 2026 who grow into lugers, skaters and skiers, just as surely as there are legacy babies honing their sporting skills at the Olympic Oval and Canada Olympic Park facilities today.
There is a less direct benefit woven into the emotion that few events provoke on an Olympic scale: civic and national pride and shared experience. It washes over Calgary for 17 days, but resides infinitely longer in memory and video montages, the latter of which will no doubt test Calgarians’ patience in the coming weeks as the BidCo finishes spending its ad budget of $1 million in taxpayer dollars on feel-good messaging to get voters into a generous frame of mind.
So the quantifiable effect of Rogers Place on Edmonton and the potential effect of another Olympic Games on Calgary is neither identical nor antithetical. Rogers Place is more than an expensive building. The Olympics are more than an unbelievably expensive sporting event. The element that draws the two together and makes the comparison ostensibly worthwhile — though readers reaching this paragraph may disagree wholeheartedly — is the process. In Edmonton, abandoning the aged Coliseum in the northeast in favour of a downtown puck palace was neither easy nor cheap with fiscal and emotional arguments on both sides, but it was worth doing. The arena deal still disproportionately favours Katz, who put up $27.7 million in cash, is paying back another $137.8 million over 35 years and derives all revenue from every event, hockey or not. But Edmonton’s downtown is more vibrant for the existence of the building and its prime tenant. In Calgary, the process is just three years into what could be an 11-year journey from recycled bright idea to the lighting of the Olympic flame. It has been neither easy nor cheap as the BidCo has already spent $10 million or more and citizens are, according to a city-commissioned poll, split down the middle. On Tuesday, Calgarians who watched city council proceedings were treated to a public, six-hour primer on exactly how divisive the process has been. They also got some hard numbers, estimates and bid details. Too little information too late in the process, but a hopelessly divided council voted 8-7 to kill the bid, knowing it needed a two-thirds majority to do so. They know that an Olympics, like a new downtown arena, will not make all Calgarians happy or bring all people in that city together.
They know the Games will not be easy nor cheap. But they will be worth doing. Again.
There is a less direct benefit woven into the emotion ... few events provoke on an Olympic scale: civic and national pride and shared experience.