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Halifax 2014 - Canadian CG bid race


mr.x

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Perhaps a Halifax games would encourage a revival of interest in the Commonwealth Games in Canada.

Even though my city rejected the idea to bid for them because of cost, the thought overall is not a bad idea. Despite the size of Calgary and its potential, it has a long way to go in terms of proper summer sports venues. Like, I hate to say it, but even "small city" Victoria, for 1994, has way better such venues than Calgary right now. To me, this is got to be a major embarrassment.

Good job Calgary didn't spend too much time on a 2014 Commonwealth games bid, and pulled out of the race- they would have lost to Halifax anyway.

It seems that the decision to put Halifax forward as the 2014 candidate was made a long time ago, before the domestic race even started!

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Like, I hate to say it, but even "small city" Victoria, for 1994, has way better such venues than Calgary right now. To me, this is got to be a major embarrassment.

I don't think Calgary has anything to be embarrased about. According to www.world stadiums.com

Tokyo's 3 largest stadiums  are:

Olympic Stadium - 57 363

Tokyo Dome- 55,000

Ajinamoto Stadium- 50,000

(the Tokyo racecourse is only 13,750 seats)

In contrast, Cardiff (Wales) with a population of around 350,000 has a 74,500 all seater stadium with retractactable roof.

Does this put Cardiff ahead of Tokyo? Certainly not.......

That's why even if Victoria, BC has better sports facilities than Calgary, this does not make it a better or more important city.

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Perhaps a Halifax games would encourage a revival of interest in the Commonwealth Games in Canada.

Even though my city rejected the idea to bid for them because of cost, the thought overall is not a bad idea. Despite the size of Calgary and its potential, it has a long way to go in terms of proper summer sports venues. Like, I hate to say it, but even "small city" Victoria, for 1994, has way better such venues than Calgary right now. To me, this is got to be a major embarrassment.

Good job Calgary didn't spend too much time on a 2014 Commonwealth games bid, and pulled out of the race- they would have lost to Halifax anyway.

It seems that the decision to put Halifax forward as the 2014 candidate was made a long time ago, before the domestic race even started!

This so-called bid came out from the blue. It caught City Hall off-guard and the idea never really got much debate because it rejected other sporting ideas before this one. Besides, I haven't heard news about the COP situation for a while, but it is still in the air.

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Like, I hate to say it, but even "small city" Victoria, for 1994, has way better such venues than Calgary right now. To me, this is got to be a major embarrassment.

I don't think Calgary has anything to be embarrased about. According to www.world stadiums.com

Tokyo's 3 largest stadiums  are:

Olympic Stadium - 57 363

Tokyo Dome- 55,000

Ajinamoto Stadium- 50,000

(the Tokyo racecourse is only 13,750 seats)

In contrast, Cardiff (Wales) with a population of around 350,000 has a 74,500 all seater stadium with retractactable roof.

Does this put Cardiff ahead of Tokyo? Certainly not.......

That's why even if Victoria, BC has better sports facilities than Calgary, this does not make it a better or more important city.

True. However, the city cannot rely on its "old" sporting laurels for long. To me, this is what is happening in Calgary because it is rejecting quite a few "offers" of late to bid for other sporting events since Calgary 1988. Other Canadian cities have noticed somewhat of this and have started to take advantage of it. Edmonton, Alberta's "other city" and capital, is really getting into it.

Since Calgary 1988, Edmonton has hosted and will host about FIVE TIMES more world championships and international sports events than Calgary.  That number could be an exaggeration because I have lost count of how many such events that it hosted in the past. Other than the number though, the rest of that statement is true. It is a candidate city for the 2011 Summer Universiade that I know of. However, I still have to find news about them, but it may consider the following:

- another Commonwealth Games;

- a Deaflympics;

- a World Games;

- a LOT MORE hostings of world championships, preferably in the summer sports.

(Note: this could be an ambitious sporting plan for the next 30 years.)

And, what of Calgary? Nothing that I know of. Really sad, to think of it.

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What i'm wondering is that, what if Toronto had bid for the 2014 commonwealth games, and put forward the same bid that they had for 2008, with olympic size venues. eg a 100,000 seater stadium?

Would Halifax still have won the race?

I rather doubt it. However, it depends on the mood of the city officials there. Since they put a "York Region" bid for 2014, I don't think the area was really serious about the whole venture. I think it still wants to host an Olympic Games, but it could be a while, if ever.

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True. However, the city cannot rely on its "old" sporting laurels for long. To me, this is what is happening in Calgary because it is rejecting quite a few "offers" of late to bid for other sporting events since Calgary 1988. Other Canadian cities have noticed somewhat of this and have started to take advantage of it. Edmonton, Alberta's "other city" and capital, is really getting into it.

Since Calgary 1988, Edmonton has hosted and will host about FIVE TIMES more world championships and international sports events than Calgary.  That number could be an exaggeration because I have lost count of how many such events that it hosted in the past. Other than the number though, the rest of that statement is true. It is a candidate city for the 2011 Summer Universiade that I know of. However, I still have to find news about them, but it may consider the following:

- another Commonwealth Games;

- a Deaflympics;

- a World Games;

- a LOT MORE hostings of world championships, preferably in the summer sports.

(Note: this could be an ambitious sporting plan for the next 30 years.)

And, what of Calgary? Nothing that I know of. Really sad, to think of it.

Sure, most definetly in terms of hosting sporting events, other cities have overtaken Calgary, nearly all major cities (except Toronto) have hosted something significant recently.

But there are other ways to get noticed around the world, one great thing that happened for Calgary was the hosting of the G8 summit in 2002, at Kananaskis, which I believe is around 80 km from Calgary, but a lot of the delegates and media crews from around the world were staying in hotels in Calgary. This was good exposure for the city.

Similarly, Birmingham in the UK, got great exposure form hosting the 1998 G8 summit with world leaders like Bill Clinton and Boris Yeltsin coming to the city.

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Sure, most definetly in terms of hosting sporting events, other cities have overtaken Calgary, nearly all major cities (except Toronto) have hosted something significant recently.

But there are other ways to get noticed around the world, one great thing that happened for Calgary was the hosting of the G8 summit in 2002, at Kananaskis, which I believe is around 80 km from Calgary, but a lot of the delegates and media crews from around the world were staying in hotels in Calgary. This was good exposure for the city.

Similarly, Birmingham in the UK, got great exposure form hosting the 1998 G8 summit with world leaders like Bill Clinton and Boris Yeltsin coming to the city.

Which Halifax hosted in 1995, before Kananaskis. On that front, it will be interesting where in Canada the 2010 G8 Summit will be held. Could the Vancouver area do this, on top of hosting the 2010 Winter Olympics?

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Similarly, Birmingham in the UK, got great exposure form hosting the 1998 G8 summit with world leaders like Bill Clinton and Boris Yeltsin coming to the city.

They either got exposure from that or the Eurovision Song Contest. Not much of a choice you might say.

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They might have the G8 up at Whistler.  Seems they are moving towards having the G8 meetings at small areas which can be shut off from the rest of the world to prevent protestors from taking over.
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They might have the G8 up at Whistler.  Seems they are moving towards having the G8 meetings at small areas which can be shut off from the rest of the world to prevent protestors from taking over.

I really doubt it. First of all, Vancouver's last dance with hosting an international "political" event like this that I know of met with the end of an RCMP inquiry, like one G8 Summit of late. Besides, I don't think those Whistler residents want something like that to counter the upcoming "happy" atmosphere of the Winter Olympics.

As for Halifax here, it will be great to have the Commonwealth Games come to the eastern half of Canada for the first time since its inception (under a different name then) in Hamilton 1930. Never mind that this event could be the biggest sporting one ever held in the whole Maritime region.

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  • 1 month later...

I think GB here made its article in par with this CBC one:

Halifax Needs More Support To Win 2014 Games: Pollster

However, this CBC Nova Scotia, March 20th., page is asking whether it is even a good idea to pursue the idea and has one external link on this page that leads to an "anti-CG" website. At this time, the page is "under going maintenance."

The Commonwealth Games 2014: A Prize Worth Winning?

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I've given this a lot of thought and as much as I like Halifax and want them to have some international exposure, it pains me to say this but I don't think Halifax has a shot at winning.

After KL, Manchester, Melbourne and New Delhi, the city will prove to be just too small to hold the event.  Halifax only has 300,000 people.  Nova Scotia has just under a million.  They need to build too much and the more people learn about what is needed financially, the more support they lose locally.  Halifax lost its chance at hosting when they failed to be Canada's bid for 1994.

The contest isn't over yet and I would not be surprised to see that Halifax finds competitors other than Ajuba and Glasgow in the race.  And already, both of those cities have more venues in place than Halifax does.

I expect that the Canadian CGF has a plan in the wings...in particular, Ottawa or Toronto or even Montreal gunning for 2018.

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I expect that the Canadian CGF has a plan in the wings...in particular, Ottawa or Toronto or even Montreal gunning for 2018.

I doubt it......I think the furthest canada will go is to put forward Ottawa. Canada's top tier cities just aren't interested in the commonwealth games. Montreal had an excellent opportunity to bid for 2014 after hosting the 2005 World swimming championships and the 2014 York region bid could have been turned into a full blown Toronto bid for the domestic race.  

The last time that top canadian cities were interested in the CG's was back in the 1940's and 1950's when there was the cancelled Montreal 1942 games and of course Vancouver 1954.

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I'm not really wanting Halifax to win, for me either Glasgow (since I'm oly a few hours drive away) or Abuja (Africa should have them really) deserve to win more.  I've never heard of Halifax before, and I just don't like it when unknowns win these things, it just doesn't seem, fitting I suppose.
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Perhaps a Halifax games would encourage a revival of interest in the Commonwealth Games in Canada.

even "small city" Victoria, for 1994, has way better such venues than Calgary right now. To me, this is got to be a major embarrassment.

Nice Point There! All Calgary has to offer is Mountains,Chinook, McMahon,Saddledome,Oval,1 major baseball field and Maxbell!

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Perhaps a Halifax games would encourage a revival of interest in the Commonwealth Games in Canada.

even "small city" Victoria, for 1994, has way better such venues than Calgary right now. To me, this is got to be a major embarrassment.

Nice Point There! All Calgary has to offer is Mountains,Chinook, McMahon,Saddledome,Oval,1 major baseball field and Maxbell!

Never mind that Calgary is in the middle of an immediate infrastructure building spree that building or upgrading more sports venues is not really in the cards right now.

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This post is off-topic, but it seems that "nearby" Moncton, in New Brunswick, is going to host the IAAF's 2010 World JUNIOR Athletics Championships. If I'm correct, Canada has hosted this event before in Sherbrooke, Quebec.

Moncton To Host World Track Event

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  • 2 weeks later...

Man the Halifax media are absolutely murdering Halifax's chance.

From the looks of it there's more members in the Halifaxnoway.com (50 members) than Halifax's backourbid.com (17 members)

From what I heard today was that the bid committee was to brief the city council on question about cost BUT! the bid committee was a no show, they didn't show up.

I'm predicting that Halifax is going to cancel their bid if they stay on the same track.

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With the alleged shakiness of Delhi's preparations for the 2010 CG, could Hamilton become the alternate host of these Games, leaving Halifax in the dust?
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