…I’ll add my 2 cents here.
I’m wondering if bgadb was thinking of Edmonton when they posted “Calgary built a velodrome to host the Olympics” – as was already pointed out there, Calgary hasn’t hosted a summer Olympics (their velodrome was built in 1976, and is concrete as again already was mentioned). Edmonton built their velodrome in preparation for the 1978 Commonwealth Games. It too is concrete and aging, a previous proposal to rebuild at the current site was turned down because of neighbourhood opposition, there was talk of building it somewhere on the outskirts of the city (ie. all the non-cycling types figure that it’s important for all facilities to be built near a freeway for transportation reasons, totally forgetting that cyclists using the facility might actually want to ride there but won’t/can’t ride on a freeway ;-) ). The latest proposal is to put it in an existing park as part of a redeveloped rec centre. If this proposal doesn’t go through, I’m not sure it will ever be replaced. Our resident former TdF maillot jaune Alex Stieda is involved, I remember in a previous newspaper article he had grand dreams of hosting Track World Cups…

Victoria’s velodrome was also under siege, and even closed for 2 years – finally reopened last June after much protest from the cycling community, IIRC a lot of the protest was centered around the idea that it was supposed to be a legacy from the 1994 Commonwealth Games and it wouldn’t be much of a legacy if they closed it/tore it down. But it is also outdoors – even with Victoria’s more temperate climate compared to the rest of Canada, still not ideal for elite training year-round.

for the 2015 Pan-Am Games in Toronto has run into a lot of controversy as well. Hamilton City Council didn’t want to put in enough funding, so at this point it is unlikely to be built there – and with time starting to run out on building a more permanent facility if they don’t even have a site yet, some speculate there will just be a temporary one somewhere for 2015.

slightly O/T – ES have a three hour highlight show from recent world cup in astana due to be shown several times during the week (from their brand new fancy dancy velodrome)

UK ES2 19.00 Tuesday and 16.45 Thursday, and ES1 12noon Wed (UK time). Coverage usually gettable via mypremium dot tv

It’s great, how much Canadian cycling has improved lately – and the success of riders like Calra Hughes and Tara Whitten and Zach Bell and the rest will surely breed more success (especially seeing how many young Canadians are waiting in the wings and starting to get fantastic results too – thinking of Joëlle Numainville, for instance) – so it feels like it’s a good time to do it. And getting eg a track World Cup in North America again would be superb! IIRC, the new velodrome at Manchester is a key factor in the UK’s track cycling success – and definitely in increasing awareness of the sport