Comments on: Costs do matter!

By: Nadine

Nadine — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 19:14:19 +0000

I think it is important to remember that while most people do lose, there are some big winners. And those big winners are the ones that push heavily for the games. Amongst the big winners I would like to include the Harper government that is more popular than before the whole proroguation issue.
I heard the statement that “no one told us to be patriotic. No corporatation or government told us to feel this way.” I beg to differ. So the Bay didn’t sell mittens, toques, scarves and gloves to increase a feeling to patriotism? Coke didn’t plaster cheering, happy, patriotic (ethically diverse) faces all over every surface they could find?
And why exactly is it a good thing to be patriotic? What truly tangible benefit is there as a result?

By: Iglika Ivanova

Iglika Ivanova — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 22:30:41 +0000

An article in the February issue of BC Business Magazine opens with this pertinent quote:

“You can count on three things being true with the Winter Olympics: the initial cost estimates for staging the Games will be underestimated, the Games will almost certainly lose money and organizers will claim they made a profit.

Yet all this appears to be forgotten every four years when a new city hosts the Winter Games, which on a per capita basis actually cost more to put on than their summer equivalent.”

Why weren’t they writing these kinds of articles back in 2003 when the bid was being considered? And if this stuff is common knowledge, then why are so many cities/countries willing to bend over backwards in order to host the Olympics?

By: Milena

Milena — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 22:01:25 +0000

I completely echo that sentiment…I’ve tried to keep mostly quiet about spending critique on my social networking site of choice (those be our real lives now….but that’s another story) but after an earlier conversation where a FB friend said “At least we got better transportation and highways out of this deal” and I replied “How is it that we got that *because* of the Olympics? Could we not have invested in that anyway – with plenty leftover to continue funding the arts, public sectors and social programs??” Anyways…yesterday I posted that I enjoyed Canada’s gold win in men’s hockey, and said friend retorted right away “oh, so now you like the Olympics” … The point is…I wish people didn’t think so simplistically about that. How is disagreeing with the spending of billions of my tax dollars the *opposite* of supporting sports?

But the author is right, this isn’t just a Vancouver issue. The Olympics are an event disproportionately grand in celebration of something that should be equal to many other social or cultural pursuits. Where is the arts Olympics? The history or mathematics Olympics. Well, the reality is, having a public party is great but with the power to completely bankrupt a city or even an entire small country it is fundamentally unsustainable and actually has to come to an end. I can see many developing nations’ economies being lured by the grandiose promise of the Olympics, only to be set back another decade in their frail growth. Let Vancouver show them that this two-week binge on something as arbitrary as elite sports is a bitter-sweet pill.