2018 Calgary Olympic Bid
So I’m (probably) gonna vote No for the Calgary Olympic bid plebiscite. (Advance voting starts tomorrow; main vote is on the 13th)
In general, I would like to see the Olympics in Calgary. I was originally leaning Yes, but in the past couple of weeks I’ve changed my mind.
It’s mostly come down to the recent debacle over who-pays-for-what-and-how-much. Not so much because the specific numbers or designations aren’t to my liking… but because the process is haphazard and poorly planned. The publicized debate in the recent council meetings have been pretty telling; nobody seems to have a good handle on how to pay for this thing.
Earlier I held up Vancouver 2010 as one of the few Olympics done right. If we are to get an Olympics that doesn’t cost us stupid amounts of money, then we need to have a good plan with tight controls and direction. It sure looks like this is lacking at the moment, right on the eve of the vote.
That leads to my further concern. If we’re so haphazard about actually pulling off a good Olympics, why are we pushing so hard for it at the city governmental level? I don’t want to go too conspiracy theory here, but it seems like there’s some sort of rationale that’s being kept out of the public debate. Talk around the Internet campfire is that the construction companies (who would make tons of money from the Olympics) are pushing hard on the city council. Political pressuring is a good enough reason to vote No.
On top of that: most of the world is voting No to their own olympic bids too. 2022 had only 2 bidding cities: Beijing (which has something to prove on the world stage… but no actual winter) and Almaty (which neither you nor I have ever heard of. It’s in Kazakhstan). 2024 dropped to 2 as well. 2026 is at 3, but the ambivalence in both Calgary and Stockholm has been well-publicized, with both cities having campaigners for the other city to win. (I haven’t heard anything about Milan; perhaps they really want it.) Everybody is saying “it’s too expensive.”
https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2018/oct/23/olympic-games-host-ioc-money
The best part: if Calgary does decide that the 2026 bid is a mess and votes No, we can still vote Yes in 2030 or beyond – hopefully when the supporters get their act together.