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Calgary & Alberta Economy


Might be too late for 2038... but maybe someone out there will champion a 2042 bid? I assume not but there's a much smaller list of potential host cities than there use to be.

calgary.citynews.ca

Calgary among shrinking list of climate-reliable Winter Olympic host cities

A new study shows changing weather patterns are shrinking the number of viable locations for the Olympic Winter Games. Rayn Rashid finds out why Calgary is still one of the places considered as a viable location.
calgary.citynews.ca calgary.citynews.ca

I also think a more regional games between Calgary, Edmonton, Vancouver, and Whistler could work well with minimal infrastructure required. Granted spreading it out like that would mean less direct investment for Calgary from the Provincial and Federal Governments. Although it would make HSR between Calgary and Edmonton a possibility. Especially with a 16-year lead time.
 
I was mostly being facetious, we get cold enough that snow making is possible and that can carry us through the dry spells. That was one of the major factors in the article.

Also, Banff can't host Olympic events, Parks Canada won't allow it, that would fall to Nakiska again.
 
Who cares about the Olympics? They will likely die before reliable snowcover does due to declining viewship and rising financial losses.

I interpret ability to host the winter olympics as viability of winter recreation in general. Whistler is likely in big trouble due to its low elevation and coastal location. Resorts in California, Oregon and Washington will also face big challenges. Alberta could pick up the business if it follows through on its 4 season resort strategy and decisively quashes environmental and NIMBY opposition.
 
These games will tell how viable the Olympics are in the future. The Paris games may have saved the summer Olympics, for now anyway, see how they go in Trumps fascist USA, the World Cup will give us a preview of that.

Fair point though, the Banff hills are definitely well suited to keep winter sports alive, lots of other places are much less so.
 
DougB said:
Most of the resorts in the US and Europe have next to no snow this year. Despite 3 weeks of almost no snow, Banff likely has the best conditions in the world right now.
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My sister and brother in law were just in Japan skiing, and the snow looked pretty epic. That may be the one place better than here (not that here is very great these days.....).
 
Mountain Man said:
These games will tell how viable the Olympics are in the future. The Paris games may have saved the summer Olympics, for now anyway, see how they go in Trumps fascist USA, the World Cup will give us a preview of that.

Fair point though, the Banff hills are definitely well suited to keep winter sports alive, lots of other places are much less so.
Click to expand...
Did Paris really do much to
MichaelS said:
My sister and brother in law were just in Japan skiing, and the snow looked pretty epic. That may be the one place better than here (not that here is very great these days.....).
Click to expand...
I've skied Japan a few times. It gets lots of snow, but the season is short and elevation low. Also, keep in mind that the resorts in Japan are much smaller than those in North America and nowhere near as challenging.

I still think Utah has the Greatest Snow on Earth, even though this year has been really poor so far.
 
I think as long as there are countries, there will be a seasonal sporting event that people will want to watch and cheer for their fellow citizens. Right now, that's the Olympics, maybe the Olympics themselves won't last but something like them will.
 
CalgaryTiger said:

Might be too late for 2038... but maybe someone out there will champion a 2042 bid? I assume not but there's a much smaller list of potential host cities than there use to be.

calgary.citynews.ca

Calgary among shrinking list of climate-reliable Winter Olympic host cities

A new study shows changing weather patterns are shrinking the number of viable locations for the Olympic Winter Games. Rayn Rashid finds out why Calgary is still one of the places considered as a viable location.
calgary.citynews.ca calgary.citynews.ca

I also think a more regional games between Calgary, Edmonton, Vancouver, and Whistler could work well with minimal infrastructure required. Granted spreading it out like that would mean less direct investment for Calgary from the Provincial and Federal Governments. Although it would make HSR between Calgary and Edmonton a possibility. Especially with a 16-year lead time.
Click to expand...
Vancouver is actually on the at-risk list. I'm not sure if they mean Whistler where most of the Olympics skiing took place or Vancouver proper. Edmonton-Calgary could make sense but they don't really have any facilities outside of Commonwealth that we don't have. A significant renovation to McMahon would be required to host.

I think we should have a serious discussion about hosting. The Olympics are moving to having existing infrastructure be a big driver. And for the winter games, there isn't any Middle East and South East Asian countries that can bid, and those are the only places I can see spending massively on the Olympics as a showcase. The infrastructure from the last Olympics is failing with the Oval the next one up. Most of the work will be renovation/expansion that it can be repurposed afterwards, and inevitably come with Federal and Provincial dollars. If the Olympics become even less popular, it could rotate between a few host cities that we could host every 5th Olympics or something like that, not to mention the World Championships, cups, etc.
 
trtcttc said:
Edmonton-Calgary could make sense but they don't really have any facilities outside of Commonwealth that we don't have.
Click to expand...
A second large hockey arena helps a lot. one takes hockey, the other short track and figure skating. 2026 planned for both a new arena and the saddledome to be operating. Could do the curling tournament in Edmonton too. Spreads the infrastructure load around, increases the hotel pool, enables more 'villages' to be reused in efficient ways. That is spreading the financial commitment and avoiding costs for half a billion at least.

A Q is whether the additional security costs are worth it.
 
darwink said:
A Q is whether the additional security costs are worth it.
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I don't think Calgary has the capability to host everything so you would need there to be another city involved and thus additional security.

Hockey (2 arenas)
Figure Skating/Short Track Speed Skating (1 arena)
Curling (1 arena)

Scotia Place, the Nutrien Events Centre, Winsport, and Okotoks OIlers' arena could be used in the Calgary area for those requirements, but it still means one of those venues is outside of Stampede Park and Winsport Security Zones.

I'd prefer to involve more than just Calgary too.
 
With the Corral closed, we don't really have a 10,000-15,000 arena. I wonder if we get one eventually if they want to use Scotia Place for more valuable events than AHL/WHL games. For curling, could they do that at BMO? Salt Lake is hosting curling in 2034 in their convention centre. And Milan for 2024 is doing long track in a convention centre too, though that's facing some ice concerns.
 
trtcttc said:
With the Corral closed, we don't really have a 10,000-15,000 arena. I wonder if we get one eventually if they want to use Scotia Place for more valuable events than AHL/WHL games. For curling, could they do that at BMO? Salt Lake is hosting curling in 2034 in their convention centre. And Milan for 2024 is doing long track in a convention centre too, though that's facing some ice concerns.
Click to expand...
I think the BMO would be used as Broadcast Centre, one of my good memories of watching 2010 was the view of the Olympic rings in the harbour from the broadcast. The view, looking west out of BMO could be pretty good... Just need to fill in that Anthem property.
 
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