Roughly 300 Calgarians gathered at WinSport on Tuesday for an informal meeting hosted by Yes Calgary 2026 representatives championing a potential Calgary bid to host the 2026 Winter Olympic Games.
The Olympic bid proponents say hosting the games would further establish the legacy of the 1988 Olympics while providing a boost to Calgary and Alberta.
Tuesday’s meeting included featured speeches, pre-produced videos with testimonials from Olympic caliber athletes and a question-and-answer session. The event also attracted opponents to a potential bid.
Representatives from Yes Calgary 2026 and members of a group opposing a hosting bid are in agreement in their belief that more information should be made public.
“I think we benefit from the cost-benefit analysis,” said Jason Ribeiro of Yes Calgary 2026, “but in the interim, we can talk about the economic work that we were just discussing today, the facility we are in injecting millions of dollars into our economy, hosting events that directly go to the benefit of Calgary taxpayers.”
Erin Waite of No Calgary believes most Calgarians could not begin to support the idea of a bid given the lack of available information ahead of a potential plebiscite in November.
“The short timeline doesn't help proponents of the bid because there's less and less time to help Calgarian's understand that equation and then make an informed vote,” said Waite. “An uninformed vote would have to be a no.”
The event at WinSport kicked off in the hours following the announcement that delegates from the International Olympic Committee (IOC) would be visiting Calgary on July 24 to speak to the Calgary Chamber of Commerce and city council.
The members of a city committee on a potential Olympic bid received an update on the ongoing search for a CEO for BIDCO and heard the latest on plans for a possible plebiscite on Tuesday. Details regarding the specifics of the discussion have not been released.
The estimated cost of hosting the games has been slated at $4.6 billion but the detailed costs of hosting will not be released until September. The detailed costs had been expected to be unveiled in June.
With files from CTV’s Jordan Kanygin
