[frinkprof]

BREAKING NEWS: Calgary considers hosting Expo 2017

Updated: Fri May. 29 2009 18:07:16

ctvcalgary.ca

CTV News has learned Calgary's best kept secret. The city is throwing its hat in to host Expo 2017.

Edmonton has already publically said it wants to host the world's fair and has budgeted millions of dollars.

The City of Champions has also asked for financial help from the province to host Expo 2017.

It's a different story in Calgary.

After confirming the news, CTV contacted aldermen for reaction. We were told City Council is not allowed to talk about it but it would be a decision made by all council members.

Canadian Heritage confirms to CTV News that Calgary has expressed an interest in being Canada's bid city.

The formal deadline to submit a bit package isn't until November.

http://calgary.ctv.ca/servlet/an/local/CTVNews/20090529/CGY_Expo_2017_090529/20090529/?hub=CalgaryHome

[Jimby]

dumb idea, a waste of money

[skrish]

Funny that all this came out while Stelmach was at City Hall. It's going to be interesting to see who the province backs financially.

[frinkprof]

I would wonder if a joint bid of some sort is in the works. My initial reaction is that either a joint bid or a Calgary-only expo would be good to see for Calgary. Not to say I wouldn't want to see Edmonton get an expo of course.

[Calgarian]

Who pays attention to the worlds fair anymore. Waste of money, no thanks.

[Bigtime]

Didn't we try this a few years back and not get it?

[frinkprof]

^Yeah, Calgary bid for the 2005 expo and lost to Aichi, Japan.

[mersar]

The big difference is that 2005 was a registered fair which lasts 6 weeks to 6 months, 2017 is a recognized fair which is orders of magnitudes cheaper and can last from 3 weeks to 3 months and can't exceed a certain area. Registered fairs also typically involve each participating country to build their own pavillions, whereas for the other type the host builds (or rents) smaller facilities for the fair to use.

[freeweed]

Fuck y'all, I'm looking forward to visiting the wigsphere.

[Bigtime]

Fuck y'all, I'm looking forward to visiting the wigsphere.

"Remember, we're parked under the Sunsphere." :haha:

[Doug_Cgy]

I'd like to see this happen...if it brings tourist dollars & global recognotion to our city, it can't be a bad thing!!

[skrish]

I'd like to see this happen...if it brings tourist dollars & global recognotion to our city, it can't be a bad thing!!

Agreed. It could also bring in some good infrastructure money from the feds and help fast track LRT projects.

[edmontonenthusiast]

I'm actually pissed that you guys would consider doing it the same year we've been planning for years. No offense to you guys, but can your council, etc. just not handle Edmonton getting a nice event?

We've worked really hard on our bid, and we've been known to host good events, so I hope we'll still get this.

[Doug_Cgy]

I'm actually pissed that you guys would consider doing it the same year we've been planning for years. No offense to you guys, but can your council, etc. just not handle Edmonton getting a nice event?

We've worked really hard on our bid, and we've been known to host good events, so I hope we'll still get this.

No offense to Edmonton either, but all cities have the same right to bid on these events! May the best bid win:tup:

[Habanero]

I'm actually pissed that you guys would consider doing it the same year we've been planning for years. No offense to you guys, but can your council, etc. just not handle Edmonton getting a nice event?

We've worked really hard on our bid, and we've been known to host good events, so I hope we'll still get this.

I don't know why you're so worked up about this? The 2017 world's fair is not the well known registered world's fair (Expo 86 Vancouver, Seville 92, etc... or the one Calgary bid on in the late 90's), it's a backwater/nobody cares about fair. Nobody outside of Edmonton or Calgary would even know or care about it.

[wild wild west]

/\Actually apparently '86 was only a Recognized Exposition. The Universal Expositions are done only every 5 years now - (2000 Hannover, 2005 Nagoya/Aichi, 2010 Shanghai and 2015 Milan) while the smaller Recognized Expos are staged in between. A number of major World cities including NY, Manila and Sao Paulo have expressed interest in bidding for 2020 - so a Universal Expo is increasingly becoming an event that only very large cities can undertake, adn thus probably out of reach for Calgary or Edmonton. That's probably why relatively small, isolated Calgary lost to Nagoya for 2005, even though many considered Calgary to have the superior bid.

Anyways, I see nothing wrong with both cities throwing their hats in the ring to be Canada's official bid city. Bottom line is, Calgary and Edmonton are the only two Canadian bid cities so one way or another, Canada's Expo candidate will be in Alberta!:cheers:

I think if Alberta were to land the Expo, it would be very good for either city. Even these smaller Recognized exhibitions typically draw over 10 million attendees - so this would be a major boon to either city, bringing potentially millions of tourists, much needed infrastructure dollars, and at least some measure of international attention.

[Surrealplaces]

Unfortunately, international politics was the one and only reason Calgary lost the vote to Nagoya. Calgary's bid was superior to the Nagoya's, and Nagoya even had the problem of it's own residents pretesting against it.

In the end it didn't matter how good the bid was, the countries who voted weren't interested in the actual bids. Britain for example voted for Nagoya, and they admitted it was only to improve their relations with Japan. This was the case for pretty much all the European countries.

Calgary actually made the voting a bit of a race by signing up some small Caribbean nations, and getting them into the voting.

/\Actually apparently '86 was only a Recognized Exposition. The Universal Expositions are done only every 5 years now - (2000 Hannover, 2005 Nagoya/Aichi, 2010 Shanghai and 2015 Milan) while the smaller Recognized Expos are staged in between. A number of major World cities including NY, Manila and Sao Paulo have expressed interest in bidding for 2020 - so a Universal Expo is increasingly becoming an event that only very large cities can undertake, adn thus probably out of reach for Calgary or Edmonton. That's probably why relatively small, isolated Calgary lost to Nagoya for 2005, even though many considered Calgary to have the superior bid.

Anyways, I see nothing wrong with both cities throwing their hats in the ring to be Canada's official bid city. Bottom line is, Calgary and Edmonton are the only two Canadian bid cities so one way or another, Canada's Expo candidate will be in Alberta!:cheers:

I think if Alberta were to land the Expo, it would be very good for either city. Even these smaller Recognized exhibitions typically draw over 10 million attendees - so this would be a major boon to either city, bringing potentially millions of tourists, much needed infrastructure dollars, and at least some measure of international attention.

[wild wild west]

Unfortunately, international politics was the one and only reason Calgary lost the vote to Nagoya. Calgary's bid was superior to the Nagoya's, and Nagoya even had the problem of it's own residents pretesting against it.

In the end it didn't matter how good the bid was, the countries who voted weren't interested in the actual bids. Britain for example voted for Nagoya, and they admitted it was only to improve their relations with Japan. This was the case for pretty much all the European countries.

Calgary actually made the voting a bit of a race by signing up some small Caribbean nations, and getting them into the voting.


Yeah, politics always enters into it - much like the olympics - but we were David against Goliath right from the beginning. We were against a city 10x our size, in a country with a huge domestic market, and a government that both loves to spend incredible amounts of money on infrastructure, and also can demand favours from the international community.