Vancouver Olympics...WTF?

[WOM]

Ten million over budget here. Fifteen million over budget there. City takes over financing at the other. I can only imagine A de C and his fellow taxpayers are scream blue murder by now, and the final bill is still nowhere near tallied.

How do cities keep selling the dream of the Olympics to their citizens when each and every one turns into an economic sinkhole? Does anyone even know what the final bill was for Athens?

[Gangster Octopus]

Vancouver Olympics...WTF?

WornOldMotorbike wrote:

Does anyone even know what the final bill was for Athens?

Dunno, but it doesn't look as though they even finished:

[Anton Gramscescu]

Vancouver Olympics...WTF?

Depends what you mean by "the bill". Cost of construction in Athens was about $11 billion, which was $3 billion over budget. Some of it was legitimate investment in infrastructure, plus of course there are receipts from tickets, visitors. etc. Adjusted for inflation, Montreal was still worse, I think.

[WOM]

Vancouver Olympics...WTF?

But riddle me this: if the cost of food and lodging and tertiary spending largely goes into the pockets of existing, established businesses (albeit packed into a three-week window) how does it offset construction costs for the games? Certainly the tax portion of that spending alone couldn't end up in the billions. And do ticket sales do much more than cover the cost of the events themselves? I dunno. The old 'we'll build all our dream projects and tourists will pay for it' doesn't seem to hold much water. LA, as I understand it, was different because most of the facilities already existed.

[Amor de Cosmos]

Vancouver Olympics...WTF?

I can only imagine A de C and his fellow taxpayers are scream blue murder by now, and the final bill is still nowhere near tallied.

Oddly we're not particularly. At least not yet. The lines on where people stand on the Olympics were drawn long ago and haven't shifted much. The City's bailout of the contractors working on the Olympic Village drew a lot of flack, but more because of the dodgy process than the money involved. Some of us were appalled by the treatment of small-retailers along Cambie St. during the construction of the Skytain line. The first of them has successfully sued the contractors for half a million dollars, more power to her and those that follow.

But, as AG, says most of the cost is for infrastructure. The transit line and the highway to Whistler are the biggest expenses, both were sorely needed and wouldn't have happened (at least not in the foreseeable future) without the impetus of the Olympics. Most of the village becomes social housing, the speed skating oval in Richmond is designed for reuse, there don't seem to be any obvious white elephants. There are over-runs yes, but did anyone expect that there wouldn't be? In the end it's a cost/benefit issue and so long as the former doesn't massively outweigh the latter then no one who wasn't already doing so will squawk too much.

[Amor de Cosmos]

Vancouver Olympics...WTF?

LA, as I understand it, was different because most of the facilities already existed.

The same is true here. I think the Winter Olympics have a much better financial record than the bloated Summer ones.

[Reed John]

Vancouver Olympics...WTF?

I've always assumed that. Winter Olympics tend to be held near a major ski resort that has already held World Cup events, so that's mostly all in place. A hockey rink and a rink for the figure skating will get plenty of users after the event and I assume Vancouver will use the Canucks' building for the hockey so that's already there. The only major new facilities are the luge/bobsled, curling and the speed skating and those can continue to get lots of demand in a place like Vancouver, Salt Lake City, etc.

[Anton Gramscescu]

Vancouver Olympics...WTF?

See, here's the kind of thing that makes it difficult to put price tags on it. I seriously doubt there was any need for a new curling facility in Vancouver. I mean, it's not Regina, but curling's still pretty popular and my guess is there are loads of facilities. But they built one anyways because they wanted something after the games that could, according to the VanOC website:

become a multi-purpose community recreation centre that will include an ice hockey rink, gymnasium, library and six to eight sheets of curling ice. Attached to, and being constructed with the new curling venue and community centre, is a new aquatic centre with a 50-metre pool and leisure pool. Post-Games, the venue will be managed by the Vancouver Board of Parks and Recreation.

We could use one of those in downtown Toronto, methinks.

[DCI Harry Batt]

Vancouver Olympics...WTF?

I was confused by the title. I thought "Olympics? In Vancouver? How odd." Then I realised you meant the winter Olympics, and all was ok.

[WOM]

Vancouver Olympics...WTF?

Sure. It sounds lovely. But again, it's a massive expense that wouldn't be tolerated otherwise. The games themselves don't actually pay for it, but are used to justify it.

Christ, we have trouble getting subways built in this city. Not to mention the whole waterfront business. Imagine trying to get that mob at city hall to get an Olympics up and running? I hope it never, ever, ever comes here.

[Anton Gramscescu]

Vancouver Olympics...WTF?

Yes, but it confuses the hell out of Canadians, because Vancouver's the one part of the NPS that doesn't see snow in the winter.

(edit: to Tonton)

[WOM]

Vancouver Olympics...WTF?

TonTon wrote:

I was confused by the title. I thought "Olympics? In Vancouver? How odd." Then I realised you meant the winter Olympics, and all was ok.

Oh, speaking of you and winter: we were at the zoo t'other day, and the new polar bear environment is looking MASSIVE and really cool. Will be open in August.

[Anton Gramscescu]

Vancouver Olympics...WTF?

WornOldMotorbike wrote:

Sure. It sounds lovely. But again, it's a massive expense that wouldn't be tolerated otherwise. The games themselves don't actually pay for it, but are used to justify it.

Christ, we have trouble getting subways built in this city. Not to mention the whole waterfront business. Imagine trying to get that mob at city hall to get an Olympics up and running? I hope it never, ever, ever comes here.

Yeah, but Canadians (and Ontarians in particular) are ultra-Scottish when it comes to investment in public works. Which is why we have such mediocre public space. An Olympics might cut through some of that shit.

Though I think it depends on the quality of your civic leaders (and I share your views on Nathan Phillips Square). Barcelona's olympics did wonders for the city, for instance - but it might not be that way here.

[Amor de Cosmos]

Vancouver Olympics...WTF?

The new curling arena is actually a very nice looking facility and replaces the old Vancouver Curling Club building on the same site which was pretty decrepit. It's one of, I think, only four new buildings in Greater Vancouver, the village, the Richmond skating oval and UBC's Thunderbird hockey arena are the other three. Existing facilities utilized are BC Place (opening and closing ceremonies) GM place and Pacific Coliseum (Men's hockey and Ice skating.)

[Reed John]

Vancouver Olympics...WTF?

The olympic coverage has caused a surge of interest in curling in the US. There are several curling facilities in Minnesota but, oddly, only one in the Twin Cities, in St. Paul. After the last olympics, demand has become overwhelming so there's now enough support to build one in Minneapolis. Curling may have hit it's popularity ceiling in Canada, but maybe not.

I think the world could use more speed skating ovals. I'd love to try skating on one of those. It looks like such a blast.

[WOM]

Vancouver Olympics...WTF?

I'm with you. But like those awesome looking velodromes, you just know there's an entire protocol in place specifically to keep schmucks like us off of them.

[Anton Gramscescu]

Vancouver Olympics...WTF?

The Olympic Oval in Calgary is very easy to access. My dad uses it all the time. Beautiful facility too.

[Guest]

Vancouver Olympics...WTF?

Have they finished paying off the 1976 one yet?

[WOM]

Vancouver Olympics...WTF?

Yeah, like two years ago. It was a big news item at the time, as you can imagine.

[NHH]

Vancouver Olympics...WTF?

Thoroughgoing critique of the Vancouver games from Andrew Shaw - Socialised debt, privatised benefits is his talk.

[Cavalry Trouser Tips]

Vancouver Olympics...WTF?

Shit like this can't have helped.

[Gangster Octopus]

Vancouver Olympics...WTF?

Antonio Gramsci wrote:

Canadians (and Ontarians in particular) are ultra-Scottish when it comes to investment in public works.

Que?

[jefe]

Vancouver Olympics...WTF?

This is the reason I was really hoping Baltimore/Washington's bid for the Olympics would get picked instead of Chicago (as it turned out). I honestly could care less about having them in my hometown/region, and it would have been an epic PITA when they arrived. But all that federal $$ we would have leeched for infastructure and transportation work would have been AWESOME.

[Anton Gramscescu]

Vancouver Olympics...WTF?

Gangster Octopus wrote:

Antonio Gramsci wrote:

Canadians (and Ontarians in particular) are ultra-Scottish when it comes to investment in public works.

Que?

Miserly.

[Gangster Octopus]

Vancouver Olympics...WTF?

Are the Scottish miserly?