Calgary, Edmonton to explore potential joint bid for Commonwealth Games

Calgary and Edmonton are mulling a potential joint bid to host the 2030 Commonwealth Games.

Alberta's two largest cities are exploring the feasibility of submitting a joint bid to host the 2030 Commonwealth Games.

The mayors of both Calgary and Edmonton will join Alberta's Minister of Culture Jason Luan and stakeholders for a media conference Wednesday afternoon regarding the bidding process.

The games are held every four years, with competitors representing 72 nations and territories.

The potential cost for a joint Calgary-Edmonton bid has yet to be determined.

"Sharing some of the costs is actually more beneficial than an individual bid or worse, trying to compete with each other with competing bids," said Moshe Lander from the department of economics at Concordia University.

"By hosting the event, that does raise their international profile of Calgary and Edmonton and so while it might just lead to two weeks of tourism during the event itself, it could lead to brand awareness, especially if they pull it off in a beautiful way."

A bid in Hamilton, Ont., fell apart in February when organizers said they were unable to secure provincial funding.

The organizing group estimated the cost to host in Hamilton would be around $1.1 billion.

"In Edmonton and Calgary, the issue now starts to become, do we want to build a fieldhouse? Are we going to wrap the new Saddledome as part of the cost of the Commonwealth Games? Are we going to use this as cover to replace McMahon (Stadium) or the coliseum with newer things?" asked Lander. 

"Those types of things raised the cost as well, and so it could very easily come in much more than a billion dollars."

The last time the Commonwealth Games came to Alberta was back in 1978 when Edmonton was the sole host.

It's been nearly 30 years since the event was held in Canada when Victoria, B.C. hosted the games in the summer of 1994.

According to Lander, Calgary and Edmonton have some advantages compared to some other Canadian cities.

"As far as the actual technical stuff behind the Calgary and Edmonton bid, a lot of the infrastructure is already in place, which is great," he said. 

"What usually destroys a lot of these host cities is that they have to build a large amount of infrastructure for an event that only takes two weeks, and then they're stuck with all of the costs of having to deal with that infrastructure that's left for years on end that doesn't get used."

The 2026 Commonwealth Games are set to take place in Victoria, Australia, and will be the first held under a multi-city host model. Events will take place in Geelong, Bendigo, Ballarat and Gippsland.

"The idea of multiple cities combining for bidding on these sorts of large events is the wave of the future," said Lander. 

"Because it's a joint bid, you're going to have the province backing it in a way that maybe the Ontario government wouldn’t back a Hamilton bid. Because clearly Edmonton and Calgary are Alberta’s two dominant cities. Not just economically and politically, but also for commerce and population alone."

The most recent games were held in Birmingham, England and featured more than 5,000 athletes competing across 19 summer sports.