Polls open for vote in Calgary\'s Olympic 2026 bid

ATTENTION EDITORS: RESENDING WITH FULL SCRIPT SHOWS: CALGARY, CANADA.

(FILE) (CBC-NO ACCESS CANADA) 1.

AERIAL SHOT OF SKI JUMP ERECTED FOR THE 1988 OLYMPICS CALGARY, CANADA.

(NOVEMBER 13, 2018) (CBC-NO ACCESS CANADA) 2.

VOTING STATION FOR NON BINDING REFERENDUM 3.

PEOPLE ENTERING TO VOTE CALGARY, CANADA.

(NOVEMBER 12, 2018) (CBC-NO ACCESS CANADA) 4.

OLYMPIC OPPOSITION GROUP HOLDS RALLY AHEAD OF VOTE 5.

OLYMPIC BID SUPPORTERS HOLD RALLY INDOORS 6.

CLOSE UP OF SUPPORTERS 7.

VOTING SIGN AT POLLING PLACE STORY: If they haven't made up their minds yet, Calgarians had just a few more hours left on Tuesday (November 13) to decide on whether to continue a bid for the 2026 Winter Olympic games.

The city is expected to take on 390-million Canadian dollars of the total 2.8 billion for a scaled down Olympic Games if they eventually win the games.

Calgary already has considerable Olympic infrastructure, that will only need upgrading according to supporters.

Olympic gold medal speed skater Catriona LeMay Doan says another Games in Calgary will ensure the city remains the most popular training site for winter athletes from around the world.

No side organizer Erin Waite worries other investments simply won't happen if Calgary says yes.

She is also sceptical of the math presented by the bid committee saying the financial costs and risks are understated at this point.

Mayor Naheed Nenshi, a bid supporter, spoke to reporters after voting on Tuesday denying that the Olympic issue had been overly divisive and that he was not worried about the fallout of the eventual result.

While the vote is a non-binding plebiscite, the 15-member Calgary city council, who will meet on Monday to vote on whether to move the bid process forward, is expected to bow to the will of the people, even if the margin of victory is narrow.

No one will be watching the outcome more closely than the International Olympic Committee (IOC), which has seen interest in hosting Games dramatically drop as the size and costs of staging an Olympics skyrocket.

A Calgary 'No' vote would leave Sweden's Stockholm and an Italian bid involving Milan and Cortina D'Ampezzo as the only other two candidates left in the race.

Swiss city Sion, Japan's Sapporo and Graz in Austria have all pulled out.

Last month Turkey's Erzurum was eliminated from the bidding process, by the IOC which will elect the winning bid in June 2019.