We're probably getting the 2026 Olympics

[LilDrunkenSmurf]

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Maybe bidco 2030 can take some lessons learned and do some better public engagement. Not taking advice from Mary Moran would be a good start.

Also, don't let Scott Hutcheson speak. When he came to our office to talk to us, there was a lot of "well, that's the media spinning it", and "don't worry, it'll get covered".

For example someone asked him about overages on security costs, and he maintained that the Fed Govt would sign an agreement that states they would be on the hook for it no matter what, and don't worry about what the Govt is saying about it now. He also constantly said that the money for the mid-sized arena "would probably get worked into a deal with the flames anyways". So many red flags.

[msommers]

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I would say that's an exceptional turnout. It's a city of a million, but a lot of those million are not eligible to vote.

I've read that ~750K were eligible to vote. For how controversial this topic was for the city, that tends to get more people out to vote. Look at the history for voter turnout in provincial elections:

https://www.elections.ab.ca/news-rep...voter-turnout/

Just eye-ballin' it, I'd say ~53% is about average. 10-15% lower turnout is significant.

[Mitsu3000gt]

I didn't see a count, but a surprising amount of people showed up in the SW. There was a steady stream of people coming in and out of the gym - nice to see.

Now that the "no" vote passed, we will probably still get it somehow.

[A790]

2030 isn't going to happen. Calgarians don't want to get in bed with the IOC.

[Quizzes]

Happy with the result!
I think this is more of a big middle finger to the IOC than it is to the Olympics itself.
Would be funny if no city hosted the 2026 Olympics because of the negative impact IOC bring to host cities.

[Tik-Tok]

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2030 isn't going to happen. Calgarians don't want to get in bed with the IOC.

That doesn't mean they won't spend money exploring it. Besides, they learned their lesson. No plebiscite next time.

[Hallowed_point]

Lame. Got held up at the registry otherwise I would've voted YES

[HiTempguy1]

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Lame. Got held up at the registry otherwise I would've voted YES

But you already won the gold medal... In car choice

[Masked Bandit]

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Happy with the result!
I think this is more of a big middle finger to the IOC than it is to the Olympics itself.
Would be funny if no city hosted the 2026 Olympics because of the negative impact IOC bring to host cities.

I see it as a small middle finger to the IOC but a much bigger middle finger to Spendshi & Bidco. Hopefully this is the beginning of the end for the Purple Prince and his arrogance.

[Xtrema]

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That doesn't mean they won't spend money exploring it. Besides, they learned their lesson. No plebiscite next time.

Plebiscite is Provincial government mandate for the $700M. Otherwise, I don't think it will happen anyway.

They screw up big time on prepping this. This ain't 1988. IOC got an image problem. We are in deep debt hole for the whole province and oil is at $13.

On top, they did a bad job lying about all the numbers along the way.

I am neither happy or sad it's a NO vote. I wish they have done better job in getting real budget and more money from governments and IOC before plebiscite. I would love to have 2026 Olympics but not with this much unknown and lies.

[pheoxs]

Being near the nation's capital could help Amazon with lobbying efforts as the company, and other fast-growing tech giants, face rising scrutiny from politicians. Plus, CEO and founder Jeff Bezos has a home in Washington D.C., and he personally owns The Washington Post.

I like how its just casually thrown in that oh he also owns this huge media outlet there.

[ArjayAquino]

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I am neither happy or sad it's a NO vote. I wish they have done better job in getting real budget and more money from governments and IOC before plebiscite. I would love to have 2026 Olympics but not with this much unknown and lies.

That's pretty much how I feel about it as well.

[D'z Nutz]

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2030 isn't going to happen. Calgarians don't want to get in bed with the IOC.

I don't know if I agree with this.

43.6% people would have been fine with it and a lot of the No people I talked to said they would have gladly voted Yes if this was properly budgeted with transparency on all details, myself included. There were just too many unknowns and it didn't help that we didn't get any information on Federal contribution until less than 3 weeks before the plebiscite. This whole process was just a mess. Heck, there were all these discussions about having events hosted at Whistler and Canmore and from what I've read the city had no discussions with either of them at all, so more unknowns about how much funding (if any) they would have gotten had they proceeded to go that route.

If this had been done properly, I'm confident in saying there would have been enough Yes votes to proceed forward with the bid.

[Hallowed_point]

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But you already won the gold medal... In car choice

YES!! wait, I thought you hated accords?!

[J-hop]

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I don't know if I agree with this.

43.6% people would have been fine with it and a lot of the No people I talked to said they would have gladly voted Yes if this was properly budgeted with transparency on all details, myself included. There were just too many unknowns and it didn't help that we didn't get any information on Federal contribution until less than 3 weeks before the plebiscite. This whole process was just a mess. Heck, there were all these discussions about having events hosted at Whistler and Canmore and from what I've read the city had no discussions with either of them at all, so more unknowns about how much funding (if any) they would have gotten had they proceeded to go that route.

If this had been done properly, I'm confident in saying there would have been enough Yes votes to proceed forward with the bid.

I agree with this 100%

[Buster]

People voted No because there was no transparency into the budget and the actual costs.

But if there was actual transparency and the actual costs were know, you definitely would have voted no.

That's basically the IOC business model: lie about the numbers until the decision is irreversible, and then spend public cash far beyond the budget.

It's why the main supporters of the olympics are people that can capture that over-runs, or are linked to the rampant corruption, or will get the contracts, etc.

[Xtrema]

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I don't know if I agree with this.

43.6% people would have been fine with it and a lot of the No people I talked to said they would have gladly voted Yes if this was properly budgeted with transparency on all details, myself included. There were just too many unknowns and it didn't help that we didn't get any information on Federal contribution until less than 3 weeks before the plebiscite. This whole process was just a mess. Heck, there were all these discussions about having events hosted at Whistler and Canmore and from what I've read the city had no discussions with either of them at all, so more unknowns about how much funding (if any) they would have gotten had they proceeded to go that route.

If this had been done properly, I'm confident in saying there would have been enough Yes votes to proceed forward with the bid.

I think we shouldn't throw away all the leg work and plan for 2030 but with firm commitment and proper planning this time. None of this ski jump in Whistler and Feds may pay security overrun BS.

This is also bad timing. We have the worst debt this province have ever seen. CoC is about the shift business tax burden onto residential. RE prices are down below 2011 level and nothing is selling. Telling people that we may be on the hook for $2-3B for a few updated facilities just left bad tastes in everyone's mouth.

[suntan]

Solid plans are the antithesis of Olympic proposals.

[D'z Nutz]

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I think we shouldn't throw away all the leg work and plan for 2030 but with firm commitment and proper planning this time. None of this ski jump in Whistler and Feds may pay overrun BS.

Agreed. Ideally we take this as a lessons learned and see where things went wrong and put it towards a proper plan for 2030. That said, I don't have the confidence that the powers that be are capable of that.

[HiTempguy1]

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People voted No because there was no transparency into the budget and the actual costs.

But if there was actual transparency and the actual costs were know, you definitely would have voted no.

That's basically the IOC business model: lie about the numbers until the decision is irreversible, and then spend public cash far beyond the budget.

It's why the main supporters of the olympics are people that can capture that over-runs, or are linked to the rampant corruption, or will get the contracts, etc.

Precisely why I would love to see another go with "actual transparency and actual costs" because then nobody would ever fall for this bullshit again

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YES!! wait, I thought you hated accords?!

I hate everything, it's kind of my thing