‘When this one goes, so does our sport’; Calgary’s 50-year-old cycling velodrome set to be removed​on February 7, 2025 at 6:52 pm

Impending upgrades at the Glenmore Water Treatment Plant will mean the end for the 50-year-old Calgary Velodrome, a cycling track that has produced more than a dozen Olympic athletes.

The concrete velodrome, located in Glenmore Athletic Park, is home to the Calgary Bicycle Track League (CBTL), and is also available in the summers for the public to rent. The 400-metre banked oval track was built in 1975 and is used for the Olympic sport of track cycling.

CBTL board president Erin Ruttan presented to the community development committee on Thursday, as part of a lengthy public hearing centered around GamePLAN, the city’s 25-year strategy to boost investment in public recreation facilities.

She said an internal memo sent to the BCTL last month indicated the club’s five-year lease to operate the velodrome would not be renewed next year, due to necessary expansion of the nearby water treatment plant. Instead, the club would get a short-term lease renewal until October 2026.

“Track cyclists right now are on the brink of losing the only facility we have for our sport,” Ruttan told the committee, noting the nearest velodrome other than the Glenmore amenity is 300 kilometres away.

“Unlike some other sports with a larger volume, we don’t have other facilities to go to. When this one goes, so does our sport, and with that goes all the institutional knowledge of the sport.”

In a statement on Friday, the city said the expansion of the Glenmore water treatment plant is necessary to support Calgary’s rapid population growth and increasing water demand.

The new infrastructure will include a treated water storage reservoir, called a “clearwell,” as well as a high lift pump station and electrical building. The clearwell and pump station will supplement existing infrastructure to increase capacity and improve redundancy in case of water emergencies or planned outages.

The infrastructure needs to be co-located at the existing site, the city said, adding the velodrome is in the exact spot where the new water treatment plant clearwell will be, and thus will have to be removed.

The work will also require the existing regional pathway next to Glenmore Athletic Park to be relocated.

Safety City, which is located next to the Glenmore treatment plant, will also be reclaimed by the city to facilitate construction activities. Run by the Calgary Safety Council, the program teaches youth pedestrian and cycling safety.

“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 city said.