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Dear Calgary: Your 2026 Olympic Bid Is The Most Transparent, Ever – Here’s Why


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Following is the fourth in a series of open letters to residents of Calgary, and those citizens in other cities who are contemplating Olympic bids. Dear Calgary: On Wednesday, your city council approved the Calgary 2026 Olympic bid to go to a plebiscite, now less than two weeks away.  Some Councilors wanted to delay that […]

The post Dear Calgary: Your 2026 Olympic Bid Is The Most Transparent, Ever – Here’s Why appeared first on GamesBids.com.

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I didn't notice much criticism that the bid is not transparent.....seemed to be more about the bid management being a disaster and the numbers just don't add up. Unfortunately much of what has been communicated was not impressive or inspiring. It just seems Calgary cannot afford to host an Olympics right now........and it's a bit mysterious how the budget has been arbitrarily reduced to fit the funding that was deemed insufficient a week ago. Transparent?

We all know Olympic hosts double their budget as a norm after they win a bid and start preparing to host. How much confidence has this team instilled that that won't happen......and when it does happen has this team shown that it will be managed effectively?

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Edited by paul
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1 hour ago, RuFF said:

I’m not going to lie. The article couldn’t maintain my attention long enough to finish reading it. But if this is considered the most transparent we have serious problems here. This is as transparent as Amazons search for HQ2.

This is so ironic & funny coming from you, considering how many other long-toothed articles that you enjoy reading from a certain L.A. columnist lol.

Perhaps bcuz the heading didn’t start off with “L.A.” you couldn’t show any appreciation for it lol. But anyway, the article was mostly about perspective. And if one was to look it at that way, then it can make a lot of sense.

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1 hour ago, paul said:

I didn't notice much criticism that the bid is not transparent.....seemed to be more about the bid management being a disaster and the numbers just don't add up. Unfortunately much of what has been communicated was not impressive or inspiring. It just seems Calgary cannot afford to host an Olympics right now.

As I just mentioned, the article seems to be more about perspective rather than being absolutely transparent. I can at least say that I’ve been reading about these Olympic bids just about as long as R.L. has been covering them. But I’m not going to pretend that I’ve have as much in depth perception as he does. He’s obviously been on the IOC inner-circle of things. So if he says that Calgary 2026 has been the most transparent bid ever, then I’ll take his word for it. 

With that said, though. None of that will probably matter to the average Calgarian, or probably won’t care about it. All they’ll see & hear about is what you’re describing - bad management & aloof numbers. I’m sure the soap opera type platform that has evolved from all this hasn’t helped, either. But at the same time, like in the article, that very dialouge has provided more of a transparency than in previous bids. So it has become a catch-22 in this instance. 

In this day & age of the internet, people seem to come to the expection that any information should be readily available at the click of a mouse. And if it isn’t, there must be something corrupt in the air (or in this case - City Hall). But that may not always be the case, & when it’s not, people are quick to judge that something fishy is going on, especially when it comes to something as complex as the Olympics & the average Joe doesn’t understand anything about that to begin with at the start of the bid process.

1 hour ago, paul said:

and it's a bit mysterious how the budget has been arbitrarily reduced to fit the funding that was deemed insufficient a week ago. Transparent?

This I’ll have to agree. The figure reduced was negligable, but interesting nonetheless.

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2 hours ago, paul said:

I didn't notice much criticism that the bid is not transparent.....seemed to be more about the bid management being a disaster and the numbers just don't add up. Unfortunately much of what has been communicated was not impressive or inspiring. It just seems Calgary cannot afford to host an Olympics right now........and it's a bit mysterious how the budget has been arbitrarily reduced to fit the funding that was deemed insufficient a week ago. Transparent?

We all know Olympic hosts double their budget as a norm after they win a bid and start preparing to host. How much confidence has this team instilled that that won't happen......and when it does happen has this team shown that it will be managed effectively?

It's not a matter of whether they can afford it or not.  The question is what's the motivation for attempting it in the first place?  Why spend the money if they (and more importantly the citizens of Calgary) won't get anything out of it?  They did in `88.  This time.. probably not so much.

At this point, it's less about budgets than it is mis-management.  As the process has developed - and FYI brings up a good point that people will perceive any tiny lack of information as if they're hiding something - the level of trust in the people running the show has dropped.  So Calgarians will get their voice and will likely have a pretty serious no majority.

Let it be said again.. this bid had a chance to succeed if it had been handled better.  Easier said than done in the social media age and people demanding information.  I think at the end of the day, the sell job that the people running the bid hasn't been there and now they're trying to scramble as there's all this noise leading up to the plebiscite.  And yea, having followed these things for a while now (although certainly not to the level as Robert), it does feel like there's a lot of info out there about Calgary.  But in comparison to past bids in more of a pre-social media world, not to mention all the pushback against Olympic bidding, the demands for information have become so great that it's tough to overcome the will of the people.  Thus, here we are with Calgary.

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1 hour ago, RuFF said:

I skipped over FYI’s comments too because aside from him being obsessed with me they’re usually loaded with drama queen drivel that is typical of her community. :)

Projecting again, are you. Always interesting that you bring up the gay references, though. You know what they say about that. :P

And you always claim the same thing, yet here you are, “obsessed” with me (& this website). But anyway, I’ll also take that as a “compl-‘i’-ment” :lol: that you “skipped over” my post, along with the article. I’d rather be skipped over along with someone else that actually knows what they’re talking about, than be in accordance with someone with a Donald-like mouth such as yourself. :D

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