More than a dozen Olympic and Paralympic athletes have trained there — and more have completed in the Pan American Games and World Cups — but the Calgary Velodrome, like the ski jumps, bobsled and luge tracks in the city, may soon become just another of the Calgary’s Olympic memories.
The 50-year-old concrete cycling track track, home to the Calgary Bicycle Track League (CBTL), is slated to be torn down to make way for an expansion of the city’s Glenmore water treatment plant.
The Calgary velodrome, where at least 14 Canadian Olympic and Paralympic cyclists have trained, is slated to be torn down to make way for an expansion of the city’s Glenmore water treatment plant.
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“Our committee understands that water is super important and that’s going to come first. It’s critical infrastructure,” said league president Erin Ruttan. “But surely there’s got to be a way we can figure it out so we’re not losing infrastructure that’s also critical to the sport.”
The land the track sits on is leased from the city, and the league was recently informed that the lease will expire in October of 2026 to allow for the water plant’s expansion. “After that is a big question mark,” Ruttan said.
The land the Calgary velodrome sits on is leased from the city of Calgary and the city recently informed the Calgary Bicycle Track League that the least will expire in October 2026 to allow for the expansion of the Glenmore water treatment plant.
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The CBTL has started talks with the city to come up with a solution, but finding a place for a new track and getting it built would take time.
The hope is the city will allow the league to keep the track “a little bit longer” while that process plays out.
The next nearest cycle track is in Edmonton, 300 kilometres away, and it is one of only seven tracks in Canada.
Ruttan said if the Calgary track is torn down before a replacement can be built, the competitive cyclists who train in Calgary will need to move. Some may leave the sport altogether, which would be a loss to Calgary’s sport legacy.
“I know a lot of people are here because of the access to sport facilities,” Ruttan said. “So it’s it’s definitely a risk if we do lose the facility.”
Ruttan said the original long-term plan for the area around the velodrome, known as the Glenmore athletic park, included a new indoor velodrome. That plan, however, “is no longer relevant” because of the city’s population growth and other developments in the area.
The president of the Calgary Bicycle Track League says if the Calgary velodrome is torn down, the athletes who train here will need to leave Calgary to continue to compete.
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When contacted by Global News about the club’s concerns, the city of Calgary provided a written response. It said the expansion of the Glenmore water treatment plant is needed “to support Calgary’s rapid population growth and our increasing water demands,” and “needs to be co-located (within close proximity) at the existing plant site.”
The statement continues by saying the city “administration is highly sensitive to the impact that this work will have on user groups in the area and we are working diligently to find solutions that will minimize unnecessary impacts before they are required for this essential work.”
The water plant expansion is also expected to affect users of the nearby Glenmore athletic park, users of Glenmore pathway and Safety City, a non-profit organization dedicated to teaching pedestrian and bicycle safety to children.
The city statement suggests the city’s new GAMEplan recreational plan, which, if approved by city council, would see up to $250 million a year in spending on new sports fields, ice rinks, pools and other recreational facilities in the city, could also be amended.
The members of the Calgary Bicycle Track League are hoping to convince the city of Calgary to include a new velodrome as one of the projects in its proposed plan for the construction of a host of new recreational facilities in the city.
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Ruttan, who spoke before the public hearing on the city’s new recreational plan on Thursday is hopeful a solution can be found.
A new velodrome, she said, wouldn’t need to be “big and flashy, but at a minimum, we’d love to just see a facility that we can ride in and keep our community.”
The “ideal scenario,” Ruttan continued, would be for construction of the water treatment plant expansion to be delayed for a few years — “and we end up keeping that lease until we were expecting into 2028 and have enough time to find a location and get a velodrome built.”