Potential Calgary 2026 Bid Buoyed by IOC Visit

(ATR) A decision by Calgary city council on a potential 2026 Winter Games bid could still be weeks away but an IOC visit is helping to clear up some questions.

A five-member IOC delegation paid its own way to the host city of the 1988 Olympics last week, and spent time at some of the legacy venues as well as meeting with the city’s Olympic project team and city council members.

"The visit was very productive," said Kyle Ripley, Director of the Calgary 2026 Olympic Bid Project, at a press conference on Tuesday. "Our project team was able to openly discuss our plans and challenges, and we learned a great deal about the new Candidature process and the new IOC criteria."

Ripley says the project team came away with a better understanding of what the IOC wanted in a bid city, starting with the importance of sustainability and legacy.

"The IOC is adamant that no new facilities be built for the Games unless there is an existing need or a strong business case for the facility with or without the Olympics. For example, under the previous model our Olympic Oval, which is still some of the fastest ice on earth, would have been about 6,000 spectator seats too small to host an Olympic event. Now under the new IOC model, our Olympic Oval would be considered suitable to host the same Olympic event."

The Olympic Oval has a capacity of 4,000 with temporary seating in place.

Calgary also learned that the IOC is happy with the Saddledome as the venue for the ice hockey and ice skating. The arena, which is still the home of the Calgary Flames NHL team, is a legacy from the 1988 Games. There had been some worry that the city would need to build a new arena.

Additional cost savings, according to Ripley, would come in the form of fewer Olympic test events, thanks to Calgary regularly hosting World Cup events in multiple sports.

"We also heard that the IOC believes that Calgary would be an incredible host city thanks to our legacy infrastructure from the 1988 Games and to our commitment to winter sport excellence, our volunteerism and our diversity," Ripley said. "We pride ourselves on these things and so it was wonderful to hear that those values are apparent to our international colleagues."

The Calgary city council has made it clear that funding from other levels of government will be necessary if a bid is to be seriously considered. It wants the Canadian federal government and the Alberta provincial government to roughly share in the cost of funding a bid corporation, estimated at between CAN$25 and CAN$30 million (US$19.5 million and US$23.4 million).

"We expect to confirm these commitments, one way or another, by early February," Ripley said on Tuesday. "If the funding commitments are secured, city council would need to make a decision on the balance of funding for the bid corporation and the IOC would make additional visits to Calgary between March and June of this year and we expect council to make this decision about pursuing the bid by late March."

Ripley will be in the Calgary delegation going to the PyeongChang Games as part of the IOC observer program. Ever money conscious, the project team has purchased cancellation insurance in case the funding commitment falls through or if Calgary city council decides not to pursue a bid before the PyeongChang Games begin on Feb. 9.

Written by Gerard Farek

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