2010 Winter Olympics on Verge Of Collapse

2010 Winter Olympics on Verge Of Collapse

www.vancouversun.com

Vancouver's Olympic Village is at least $131 million over budget & it's unclear how much the city might lose when the $1-billion project is sold on the real estate market.

Taxpayers are on the hook for hundreds of millions in loan guarantees to ensure the project is finished on time for the 2010 Games.

Delays & cost overruns pushed its budget from $950 million to at least $1.08 billion.

It's lender froze the loan because of the soaring costs that threatened profitability.

(visit the link for the full news article)

Wonder what would happen if they do not have enough money to complete it for the Olympics???

Why do cities want to have the Olympics? I've not heard of one city that actually made money on it and that's always their main selling point. Even more so, the city spends 10-20 YEARS paying it off in most cases....

www.vancouversun.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

reply to post by The Change Weenie


I don't know, I've wondered that myself.

If it always means negative revenue for your city why host it? Unless you have a LOT of pride in hosting it I guess, idk.

reply to post by The Change Weenie


I really don't know why so much money is spent.

It's kind of like Convention Centers. Every town at some point wants a Convention Center, and not only do they cost a lot of money to construct, but they lose more and more money every year.

You would think . . .

They'll still make quite a bit of money just that there will be more advertisements on T.V, and some cutbacks on other things like security. I can see a couple of grants being offered to the city.

Cities want it because it meens they can tap up the national government grants to improve infastructure.

reply to post by The Change Weenie


The cities lose money but the corporate developers and builders who influence/bribe city council members and Olympic committee members stand to make a lot of money building this infrastructure. This is in the same way as prison companies lobby congress to build more jails to make more money... and - as usual - the taxpayer foots the bill.

Originally posted by mkross1983
reply to post by The Change Weenie

 

I don't know, I've wondered that myself.

If it always means negative revenue for your city why host it? Unless you have a LOT of pride in hosting it I guess, idk.

Well, yeah, if you are Peru or someone small, that makes alot of sense.

But the cost to China for the last Olympics was small compared to the psychological effect of showing all their guys beating drums and such. To have the Olympics is to have the entire world's attention focused on you.

reply to post by The Change Weenie


That's actually very accurate. The city is overspending like crazy and to calm the tax paying population down a bit you can see everywhere ads about how great the venues will be etc.

The city of Vancouver obviously has enough money to build new Highways and train routs, however in the center it cannot afford a light at an six lane intersection where every other day a major accident occurs.

The same picture in real estate. Locals, whose lease contract expires this winter have no chance of extending it or finding another decent place to live. In march I assume the real estate market will crash all of a sudden, leaving a big income gap.

Hotels are being built all over the place for the guests over the Olympics. I wonder if someone told them that you need a consistent customer base for years to achieve a reasonable return on investment.

It's all short term planning and everybody seems to close their eyes on everything that concerns the periode after February 2010. A smart thing to do, obviously.

Vancouver, good luck!


[edit on 6-10-2009 by thegreatobserver]

[edit on 6-10-2009 by thegreatobserver]

I vote they hold the Winter Olympics in Daytona Beach. They can play their games at the Daytona Speedway during Speedweeks while the rest of us go to the beach

it's kinda obvious that the only ones who win are the ones who the money is being "lost" to. ie., planners, developers, contractors, brand names, whatnot.
that said, the olympics is an illuminati ceremony that will never be able to "collapse", lol.

the bread will be tossed to the masses, and the circus will go on.

that's my prediction for 2010.


[edit on 6-10-2009 by billybob]

I'm not buying it. I think the city of Vancouver has plenty of money to get the projects completed. They'll just have to go a little lighter on the kickbacks. I think this is just a ploy to try and get more cash from the Federal Government. They're just trying to make the Feds nervous.

Anyway, $1.2 Billion for the entire games is chicken scratch when you consider that the Olympic Stadium in Montreal cost $1 Billion alone. And that was 33 years ago! The stories of corruption about that stadium and those games are legendary.

reply to post by SphinxMontreal


right on the money.
all hail the highly effective brain foods, poutine and smoked meat sandwiches!

I live right in the heart of 2010.

Vancouver is one of the nicest and most beautiful cities in the world. Vancouver ranks high when it comes to best cities in the world for quality of life. Source

The Olympics is an awesome investment. From a marketing stand point, why don't you tell me how much it would cost to market your city to 3/4ths of the whole planet?

Tourism is the biggest industry here in BC next to pot. I imagine the Olympics will make Vancouver and Whistler a household name for all winter sports lovers worldwide. The Olympics is a great investment that will pay off for 500 years.

This is even more so for Vancouver because it is so incredibly beautiful.

When the Olympics were awarded to Vancouver back in 2002, there was no indication that the world economy was going to go to pot. If everything had remained status quo with the money, then the expected budget should have been okay..

Cost overruns are to be expected during this recession. We just happen to be unfortunate to be caught in the middle of it.

(Edit: Okay there may have been indicators that the economy was running fast and loose but no-one outside of Ure, Mish, and ATS had caught onto it yet).

[edit on 2009/10/7 by juniperberry]

Originally posted by juniperberry
When the Olympics were awarded to Vancouver back in 2002, there was no indication that the world economy was going to go to pot.

[edit on 2009/10/7 by juniperberry]

In 2002 the Vancouver and BC industry was the same as it is today.

Pot
Tourism
Logging

The Olympics were awarded to Vancouver in 2003. BC has set a goal to double tourism dollars within 10 years. Hosting the Olympics and investing in it has helped to realize this goal.

So I think this article is rubbish and the title of this thread is ridiculous.

In fact a MOD should change the title. You are not allowed to change a news title to anything you feel like. It should be : Vancouver's Olympic village $131 million over budget: report

[edit on 7-10-2009 by Wormwood Squirm]