Should We Put In A Bid?

   It seems a lot of potential hosts for the 2022 Winter Olympics are now backing down from the idea of hosting the games. The IOC is to meet soon to discuss which city should host the games, but the lack of willing participants (Krakow, Poland and Stockholm, Sweden have withdrawn their bids, Oslo, Norway faces internal opposition, and Lviv, Ukraine mired in unrest) now down to Almaty, Kazahkstan and Beijing, China, officials may well look to Canada to pick up the torch.
   And since Vancouver hosted the 2010 games (city council there is not interested in hosting another so soon), the spotlight may well fall on Calgary, which hosted a successful 1988 games. Most of the infrastructure is still there, maintained and even upgraded, and is still being used as training for some of Canada's Olympians.
   But there are 2 questions. Since Beijing hosted the 2008 Summer Games, does that leave them out of the running? And secondly, will Calgary (and Canada for that matter) be willing to take on the expense of the games. The 2014 Games in Sochi, Russia cost that country 51 billion dollars, a hefty price tag under any circumstances. Even with the majority of the venues in Calgary still in good shape, there's bound to be a cost involved.
   However, according to one report, no one in city government was currently prepared to take questions on the idea of a future Olympic bid.
   I've been saying for quite a while now that the IOC needs to look at having 2 permanent venues, one for each games, with countries wanting to send athletes having to pay either a set amount or an amount dependent on athlete representation. That way, there's always a pool of cash to make repairs and improvements without the need for countries to go into debt to pay off the cost.
   On that note, all you need to do is look at the Montreal games of 1976. It took nearly 3 decades to pay them off.
   And with the 2014 games costing 51 billion, it's no real surprise that potential host countries are backing away.
   It'll be interesting to see just what the IOC does for 2022.

TTFN