Why not do it again?
Vicki Hall explores eight factors that could entice Calgary to bid for the 2026 Winter Games
CALGARY — One of Canada’s biggest sports stories of 2017 is set to unfold not on ice or grass but in council chambers at Calgary City Hall.
Come late summer, Calgary’s elected officials are expected to vote on whether the city should bid for the 2026 Olympics in hopes of recreating the magic of the 1988 Winter Games.
A 17-member committee — chaired by former police chief Rick Hanson and including Olympic champions Beckie Scott and Catriona Le May Doan — is exploring the feasibility of a bid. The findings of the $5-million study are due in July.
On the surface, a bid may seem preposterous given the US$55-billion budget of the 2014 Sochi Games and the recession-battered economy in Alberta. After sagging oil prices, Calgary has the highest unemployment rate of any major city in Canada at 10.2 per cent.
Regardless, the prevailing winds point to Calgary tossing its cowboy hat in the ring — pending final approval by the Canadian Olympic Committee.
Here are eight reasons why Calgarians will go for it:
1 The economy
Yes, it’s true. Calgary is reeling. Oil plunged from more than US$100 a barrel in 2014 to less than $30 in 2016 before shakily climbing back above $50 before Christmas. Housing prices are down, vacancy rates are up, small businesses are shuttering. The carnage is real. But Alberta experienced a similar downturn in the early 1980s when the city decided to bid for the 1988 Winter Games. Could the Olympics help Alberta rise from the latest bust? “Considering the status of our economy right now, it would have a very powerful impact on the city and the province,” says Doug Mitchell, founder of Calgary’s Sport Tourism Authority. “When you consider infrastructure and creation of jobs, I think it could be a very important part of the province’s growth or recovery from the current situation.” The Sports Tourism Authority forecasts the creation or support of 40,000 jobs through Calgary 2026.
2 Olympic Agenda 2020
Yes, the Sochi Olympic budget is enough to make any country run away as fast as Usain Bolt — or Andre De Grasse — from the proposition. But the International Olympic Committee is vowing change under a series of reforms designed to slash the cost of bidding and encourage host cities to “reduce, reuse and recycle.” That philosophy suits Calgary considering the majority of the 1988 facilities are still operational, including the Olympic Oval, Winsport’s Canada Olympic Park and the nearby Canmore Nordic Centre. Upgrades are needed — especially to the aging bobsled track — but the cost is minimal compared to starting anew. “There’s a lot of stuff that Calgary can do that will be very efficient,” says John Furlong, chair of the special COC committee struck to help Calgary explore a possible bid for 2026. “But others will do this too. You try to use what you have.”
3 International sentiment
The IOC desperately needs a safe harbour — a city or country that can comfortably pull off an Olympic Games without calamity. After all, the entire Olympics movement is in turmoil after the doping scandal in Sochi, the financial woes in Rio de Janeiro and the spectre of three consecutive Games in Asia (Pyeongchang 2018, Tokyo 2020 and snow-starved Beijing in 2022.) “No one has ever really said anything bad about Calgary,” Around the Rings editor Ed Hula says from the online publication’s head office in Atlanta. “It’s got a solid reputation as far as a past host of the Olympic Games. It’s got everything going for it.”Calgary is credited for reinventing the Winter Games, thanks in part to a record $309-million American television rights deal.
4 Local sentiment
Calgary fancies itself as an international mecca for elite winter sport. And for good reason. Olympians from around the world flock here to train and compete at the 1988 facilities. The ski jumps tower over the skyline and the Rocky Mountains loom large to the west. To longtime Calgarians over age 40, the 1988 Games are seen as 16 days that forever changed the city. “The world had arrived on our doorstep — and Calgary was suddenly moving out of its role as a regional hinterland,” University of Calgary sociologist Harry Hiller told Postmedia in 2013.
“It would no longer be a Cowtown, an agricultural base. It would undergo a major transformation.”
Nearly 30 years after that transformation, the warm fuzzies persist — especially for members of the 10,000-strong volunteer army that helped make the event a success. “I’ve lived in Toronto and Vancouver,” says Mitchell, a lawyer and former commissioner of the Canadian Football League.“They’re great cities, but the volunteer aspect is not just the same as it is in Calgary and Alberta. It’s amazing.”
5 Chances of winning
Switzerland is seriously considering a bid, and there’s noise surrounding possible bids from Austria, Germany and Norway. But the vast majority of Olympic journalists and officials polled informally at the world press briefing for the 2018 Pyeongchang Games in November said they believed Calgary would win the 2026 Games if it submits a bid.
The chances grow higher if Paris or Budapest beat out Los Angeles in the race for the 2024 Summer Olympics (a final decision is expected on Sept. 13.)
“I think it would probably be better for Calgary if one of the European cities got the 2024 Games,”Hula says.“It would certainly put North America’s number up for 2026.”
Given the Los Angeles bid, the United States Olympic Committee is not expected to put forward a winter bid this time around — putting Calgary in prime position.
6 Donald Trump
Calgary’s prospects of getting the Olympics brightened considerably the night Trump claimed the American presidency.
The IOC voting process is political in the extreme — and members might make a statement on Trump’s policies this September by giving Paris or Budapest the nod. (Paris is already a likely choice for some if they go purely on where they would like to spend three weeks of their lives in the summer.)
Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti told The Associated Press in August that IOC members “would say, ‘Wait a second, can we go to a country like that where we’ve heard things we take offence to?’” But Trump is a wild card as his abilities as a salesman are perhaps unparalleled. He convinced the American people to vote for him. Don’t rule out him doing the same with the IOC.
7 Ancillary needs
With the Olympics comes government investment in infrastructure, and Calgary has some big-ticket items on the wish list.
Chief among them is a new arena to replace the Saddledome, one of the oldest rinks in the NHL, and a lightrail transit line to connect the airport with downtown. (At present, the proposed hybrid arena-stadium-field house complex in the West Village is on hold while the city holds discussions with the Calgary Sports and Entertainment Corp. about building a replacement for the Saddledome in the vicinity of the Calgary Stampede grounds.)
Affordable housing is another glaring need in Calgary, like most major Canadian cities. The athletes’ village — and perhaps a media village — could turn into rental or condo units at the conclusion of the Games. 8 Naheed Nenshi The Calgary mayor took a personal holiday to Rio for the 2016 Summer Games. He’s a regular presence at the Oval and Canada Olympic Park. There’s no question Nenshi is a huge Olympics fan, and, if the numbers make sense, the popular politician is expected to lead the charge for Calgary in 2026.