"mere opportunity" is correct and usable in written English.
The phrase is generally used to describe a situation that is not ideal, yet offers something of value or potential, such as in the sentence: "Her internship was nothing more than a mere opportunity, but it still gave her some valuable experience."
But more than the ability of that team to tread water, Feldhaus recalled the sense of appreciation and relief over the mere opportunity to carry on.
Theirs was the era whose Keep Calm and Carry On morale-raising refrain has been reduced, in our era of post-modern parody, to a mere opportunity for marketing cheap commercial tat.
Presumably, writers are as eligible for these awards as anyone else, and it is going to be hard for the Writers Section of the Party to persuade a scribbler who has a shot at bagging 10 or 20 thousand rubles in a contest -not to mention a decoration fashioned of real Moscow gold - that such tangible compensation is no more desirable than the mere opportunity to reach an informed audience.
Regardless, there was a sense of pride at the mere opportunity and ability to stage an event and showcase young talent like this now.
Lamb's humanitarian invasion of the festival circuit proves that large-scale music events are more than a mere opportunity for an afternoon acid trip.
This committee must not become a mere opportunity for certain people to be visible.
Of course you cannot properly tell the story of jazz without closely examining its cultural context, but to treat the aesthetic achievements of geniuses like Louis Armstrong and Duke Ellington as mere opportunities for historical point-making is to distort them beyond recognition.
Racecourse owners and consumers, arguably, suffer as a result.The BHB, aided by a phalanx of lawyers and expert-witness economists, argued that racing was not a mere "betting opportunity".
Conservatives, at the time, resolved the dilemma (between ballooning conglomerate power and shrinking civic equality) by simplifying Jefferson's ideas as mere equal opportunity -- an argument that survives on talk radio today.
Denise Lewis, Grand Panjandrum of Corporate Affairs, assured us that Orange has always regarded their prize as much more than a mere marketing opportunity (although it comes in handy, she barely failed to add).
The desire to be close to animals, the opportunities to do so, and the misguided, trusting belief that it must be safe... Taken together, they result in people taking massive, dangerous risks for a mere photo opportunity.
