Calgary city councillors have voted in favour of spending up to $5 million to study the feasibility of making a bid for the 2026 Winter Olympic Games.
City council heard a proposal to bring the Olympics back to Alberta’s largest city Monday afternoon in a closed-door meeting.
Mayor Naheed Nenshi spoke about what the vote means to Calgarians.
“What council endorsed today was an opportunity to go forward, spend a little bit of money, gather more data,” he said. “What council heard today is it’s time. It’s time to explore this bid in detail.”
An Olympic bid may seem somewhat odd to some as Calgary has been hit hard by the steep decline in global oil prices.
But Coun. Richard Pootmans pointed out the city was in a significant recession when it bid for the 1988 Games in 1981.
“The city was looking for projects to inspire them, was looking for projects to help stimulate the economy,” he said prior to council debate.
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The Calgary Stampede board said it had been approached to gauge its interest in joining the possible bid, and said it would support the bid as well as the building of a new arena on its property.
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“We were asked to provide a letter if we would support such a bid, and we certainly indicated we were supportive of exploring whether that was a feasible opportunity,” Stampede president Bill Gray said.
The Canadian Sport Tourism Authority (CSTA) said it will raise private funds to help pay for the cost of the Calgary exploration committee’s work. Doug Mitchell, the committee’s chair, said his organization has been working on a bid for over two years.
“We wouldn’t be doing this if we weren’t satisfied that the IOC (International Olympic Committee) is going to look at existing facilities and coming back to original cities that have supported and had the Olympics.”
The CSTA commissioned an independent third-party study which found the event could add $3.7 billion to the province’s gross domestic product, $2.6 billion of additional labour income and could create about 40,000 jobs.
The Canadian Olympic Committee has put out a call to cities to see which are interested, and asked to hear back by the end of June.
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In May, Quebec City said it was no longer considering a 2026 bid.
The organizing committee for the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver and Whistler, B.C., said that event cost $188 billion to put on and that VANOC “broke even.” The committee said the cost of the bid was $34 million.
The 1988 Winter Games were a huge success that built some of the city’s major sports facilities, including Canada Olympic Park.
Calgary’s consideration of an Olympic bid comes as its NHL hockey team is pushing for a new arena to be built in the city.
The Calgary Flames have proposed an $890-million project that would include an arena, stadium and fieldhouse. The proposal would see taxpayers covering $200 million of the cost. A city report, however, pegged the true cost of the project at $1.8 billion.
City council has asked the team to explore ways of bringing down costs and the two sides are scheduled to meet again next week.
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The Flames’ current home – the Scotiabank Saddledome – was built in 1983. McMahon Stadium was built in 1960.
The International Olympic Committee is expected to name the 2026 host city in 2019.
With files from The Canadian Press and Global’s Reid Fiest
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