Calgary's potential 2026 Winter Olympic Games bid "avoided being relegated to the dust bin" Wednesday as its city council voted to "keep the process moving forward," according to Dave Dormer of CBC NEWS. Administrators will work with the city solicitor to "move the bid from the exploration phase to the invitation phase and spend the next month looking at what funding will be required." An earlier report by the Calgary Bid Exploration Committee "pegged" the cost at C$4.6B ($3.7B), which would be offset by C$2.2B ($1.7B) in revenue from ticket sales, corporate sponsorships and direct contributions from the IOC. The remaining C$2.4B ($1.9B) "would need to be made up from other sources." Calgary Mayor Naheed Nenshi said, "This vote very much reflects what Calgarians have told us, which is that it would be a great thing to host the Olympics but it has to be right for Calgary. What council decided today was, pencils down for a little while, let's analyze the deal L.A. has received [for the 2028 Olympics] with the [IOC], let's think about what might make sense for Calgary, let's refine some numbers" (CBC, 8/2).
