When planning for major international events, governments can empower their citizens to point the way forward.

Hosting a major sporting event like the Olympic Games or the World Cup can transform a city’s future. International events can attract investment and prestige, drive infrastructure growth and bring valuable tourism to a city.

But they can also come with a significant burden. Expensive facilities often need to be built on prime real estate, often with little hope of recovering costs or delivering an equitable return to the community. The cost of housing the world’s sporting community, media and crowds of tourists and keeping them safe often runs into the tens of billions, and any missteps attract harsh scrutiny from the rest of the world.

While host cities once made big money on television rights and tourism, they now risk ending up saddled with underused facilities and infrastructure, and decades of debt. It’s no wonder the number of cities bidding for international events is in freefall.

The spirit of 88

In 1988 the Winter Olympics were hosted in Calgary, Canada. The games are remembered by the world for the noble failure of Eddie the Eagle and the events of the film Cool Runnings. But Calgarians remember it as the event that helped pulled the city out of a recession.

This was the fourth bid by the City to host the games, and the community’s enthusiasm for the games was seen when 22,000 people signed up for 9400 volunteer positions. Among those cleaning up horse manure at the opening ceremonies were doctors, lawyers, secretaries and schoolteachers, and the president of a small company.

The event brought an estimated C$1.4 billion in economic benefits to the country, including capital spending, increased tourism and new sporting opportunities created by the facilities.

In the lead-up to the bid for the 2026 Winter Olympics, the City of Calgary is consulting with its citizens, asking them for their views on holding the games again. In the first few days the engagement has attracted thousands of responses from citizens.

The City has taken advantage of The HiVE’s Quick Poll, Visioner and Form tools to gather quantitative and qualitative data on the community’s sentiment on the issue, empowering them to get involved in decision-making around an event that would shape their city for years to come.

Not only can this data be used to inform the City’s decision, it also provides insights on the community’s priorities, concerns and attitudes.

From the responses posted on Calgary’s engagement, it is clear much has changed in the city, and the community is weighing up more than just the prestige of being a host city. When making big decisions that affect the future of a city, governments are now in a position to empower their citizens to participate in the process, while gathering valuable, actionable data along the way.

See Calgary’s 2026 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games bid engagement