Could politicians be this stupid?
Hosting the 2026 Olympic Winter Games would require more than $2 billion in public funding and risks running a massive operating deficit, Calgary city council learned Monday.
Could politicians be this stupid?
Hosting the 2026 Olympic Winter Games would require more than $2 billion in public funding and risks running a massive operating deficit, Calgary city council learned Monday.
“Could politicians be this stupid?”
That’s one of those rhetorical questions, isn’t it?
Only if you have STUPID politicians running the Olympics. When you have a BUSINESSMAN run the Olympics … you turn a $ 200 million PROFIT. The Salt Lake City 2002 Winter Olympics
http://www.ksl.com/?sid=19155597
… + adding even MORE $$$ and benefits YEARS AFTER the Olympics go bye-bye. THAT’s what happens when you take the SOCIALIST MO-rons OUT of the Olympics. As in STOP the crony Socialism that lines the pockets of leftist Contractors, etc. … and STOP providing FREE VIP seats to all your Socialist cronies. And PUHLEEZE drop all the Global-Warming propaganda from the Opening ceremonies. STOP using the Olympics as a vehicle for brainwashing the masses with Socialist propaganda.
They wasted $5 million to tell you that the Olympics is a costly boondoggle.
Well done, Calgary city council
They keep trying to work in that new arena Calgary doesn’t need. They already have every facility they would need for the Olympics. As security would be mostly provided by the federal government and be largely Mounties and soldiers who are paid regardless of posting, perhaps that expense could be reduced. If a reasonable plan can make it beak-even go for it. No way a province Red Rachel’s communists have almost destroyed needs more billions in expenses.
“The Salt Lake City 2002 Winter Olympics”
Refresh my memory, was 2002 before the Great Recession? Since the global economic downturn, attendance at the Olympics(season irrelevant) has been very poor.
I do not think welfare mothers should be playing bingo whether they have Jimmy the Greek standing over them and coaching or not.
Is it possible for a man to have a baby?
Even if he becomes a xe?
Yes, yes, yes. Better you than me.
——
I still think they should agree to hold the Olympic Games in the same place.
Switzerland and Greece.
Of course that will absolutely ruin the graft and extravagant travel opportunities for the select few of the International Olympic Committees.
The money would be better used on Muslims wouldn’t it? Lifetime welfare tics run up a big tab.
Guess you haven’t been to a Flames game or concert (do they still host those things?) at the ‘Dome. If you had, you would know how much Calgary desperately needs a new arena. Either that, or you drank so much crack beer that you forgot how horrible the arena is!!
Even if Calgary hosts those Olympics, I won’t be watching. I gave up on those gaudy, over-priced dog-and-pony shows a long time ago.
There won’t be any winter by then and half the population will be dead/displaced by robots/unemployed immigrants/retired.
Sorry snowflakes, no new arena/Calgary Flames/Winter Olympics for joo!
Signed The Soup Nazi
IOC graft and bribery? one word: Samaranch
scaREW *anything* to do with Olympics anywhere in canuckistan. 2 words: mafia, montreal
migawd, the amount of sports eqpt for junior baseball, hockey, soccer, tennis, figure skating future athletes is immeasurable.
but noooooo, better to go with the flag waving ego massaging and very lucrative (for a few) Olympics with the ever present performance enhancing drug scandals. right? every friggin time now there’s a drug scandal @ said ‘sports’ event.
Yeah, the Saddledome is so horrible, it hosted all the ice events for the 88s, and STILL is the Flames home arena.
Cry me a corporate welfare river!
This idea will steal the church mice’s building. Absolutely the wrong time wrong place wrong environment for doing the Son of ’88. There’s not enough money for looking after the city’s needy as it is.
Yes … before the collapse of the fraudulent mortgage bubble … and … riiiiighhttt AFTER 9-11-2001 … none of which seemed to impact a well-run BUSINESS of an Olympic Games (held in a highly desirable location).
NOTE that the Olympic Committee has been systematically awarding Olympic venues to virtual 3rd world cities, in an OBVIOUS attempt to redistribute $$$$$ to various hell-holes around the world. Hence, attendance is down in … Brazil, Russia, and other UNdesirable destinations that are being IGNORED for their unsafe and unpleasant environs. I suspect that Calgary (never been there, but would love to see the Stampede some day) is far better situated to attract patrons to its venues … than recent host cities. Perhaps the Olympics has learned a COLD, HARD lesson in Econ 101 … you cannot EVER screw with the FREE MARKET Consumer … the Consumer is KING, and doesn’t give a shit about your politically-correct Socialist hell-hole venues. Sorry. Better luck to Calgary.
Hahaha … yep, the SUMMER Olympics will be held in Calgary when the entire population of the planet are all living above the Arctic circle to avoid the “incinerating” +2 deg.F average temps. Don’t doubt me !! … I saw an Al Gore PowerPoint presentation that explained it all.
OT to this thread but Daily Mail headline:
Suspected suicide bomber threatening train passengers ‘shouts Allahu Akbar and triggers an explosion’ at city’s central station as he is shot dead by soldiers
“Suspected”? And his motives remain a mystery. At least it wasn’t one of those evil anti-muslim attacks.
“Guess you haven’t been to a Flames game or concert (do they still host those things?) at the ‘Dome.”
No but the 40 year old Edmonton Coliseum that was recently replaced by the new $600 million Rogers’s Place essentially still looked brand new. I’m guessing the 10 year newer Saddledome still looks like new. The only problem with the Coliseum was not enough private boxes for millionaires. To make life easier for millionaires to watch a billionaire’s team, the working folk of Edmonton are paying the biggest part of the costs. And the city will likely tear down the old arena which still looks like new.
Allah almighty! We need a revolution,complete with guillotine.
The Province of Al-berta is in deep financial sh!t,the oil industry is landlocked by communists to the left and marxists to the right of them, but the solution according to some is to pi$$ away se4veral billion more on goddamned circuses!
As kenji said,ONE Olympics in the modern era made a profit,ONE! That will probably never happen again. The fiction that these circuses bring in more than they cost has been debunked repeatedly, even with the highly creative bookkeeping of the interested parties.
Pro sports teams are no better if the city has to build their arena or stadium.
https://www.marketplace.org/2015/03/19/business/are-pro-sports-teams-economic-winners-cities
https://www.brookings.edu/articles/sports-jobs-taxes-are-new-stadiums-worth-the-cost/
This Olympics scam is just Calgary’s way of getting all the Canadian taxpayers to pay for a new arena, Edmonton has upped the ante and Calgary can’t stand it. Sorry, as a resident of Edmonton, I am already paying for a new arena here. There is no way I should have to pay for one in Calgary also. Build your own damn arena or how does the “Seattle Flames” sound?
I think this is Nenshi’s idea of a legacy and I think the other Calgary Aldermen+Nenshi see it as a chance for kickbacks.
All pro-sports are a scam. Pay for your own DAMN entertainment, sports addicts, or get a real life.
The ‘Dome does not look brand new, the roof can barely hold the weight of the Jumbotron scoreboard let alone the requirements for major concerts, the acoustics are horrible, the concourses too narrow, the bathrooms too few, the beer is horrible due to amount of nitrogen needed to get it to the taps, the entrances are not designed for current security needs, the location on the Stampede grounds means interference by the Stampede board (eg parking and concessions), parking is bad especially when other events on at Stampede park…I could go on, but I guess you have to experience the issues before you believe they exist.
Redmonton got a a new barn so now calgary wants one.
3 years ago there was no talk of needing a new building. Now they can’t live without one
Anything involving politics will be screwed up.
Poll spotting Calgary Sun: “Should the City of Calgary make a bid for the 2026 Games?”
http://www.calgarysun.com/
Currently 36% YES & 62% NO
Montréal …
http://www.musee-mccord.qc.ca/app/uploads/2015/11/170404_aislin_galerie7-2-554×800.jpg
http://www.musee-mccord.qc.ca/en/exhibitions/aislin/
Oh, the humanity RobP.
The beer just isn’t quite right? Yup, gotta spend hundreds of MEElions to fix that up, right now!………..
No, it’s NOT stupidity.
It’s greed.
It’s the normal, ubiquitous human desire for power, position, money, and influence.
That desire is magnified when people get into positions of monopolistic power such as government.
They begin to realize more and more this: “Who is going to arrest the sheriff, especially when the sheriff is a ‘good-time Charlie’ with other people’s money?”
The solution is this: As a father and mother give up what is important to themselves for the sake of their children, so people must give up what is important to themselves – power, position, money, influence – for the sake of those they serve.
They should have built the thing better in the first place instead of trying to make it look like a cowboy accoutrement. Consider how long the iconic arenas of the past were in use: Maple Leaf Gardens 68 years, Chicago Stadium 65 years, and the Montreal Forum 70 years. Believe it or not the Forum was built in 159 days and Maple Leaf Gardens in 166 days. Nowadays you couldn’t build an outhouse that quickly.
But they knew IMMEDIATELY the motivation of the driver who went into the crowd outside the mosque …. just saying’
The Olympics are nothing but bullshit. It has nothing to do with human achievement but rather a political competition about who’s country is bigger, stronger and more virtuous than the other.
A total waste of time and money.
Lord how I miss Ralph Klein.
Who needs it.. Pump up the tires of a bunch of limp dick old Euro’s. Not like they have any financial skin in the game.
No it’s not stupid politicians, it’s stupid Calgarians:
“Two-thirds of surveyed Calgarians in favour of Olympic bid”
They’re just giving the voters what they want, and hopefully it will be good and hard. Canada has had the Olympics three times. If we haven’t learned by now how how stupid this is, there’s no hope for us. The IOC is nothing more than a gang of crooks looking for the largest bribes from whatever country and city is dumb enough to pony up for this fiasco.
Never underestimate the stupidity potential of politicians.
Wow…straight to personal attacks. Let me go through this again:
1. The ‘Dome roof does not support the current concert requirements meaning the city of Calgary does not have a venue for major concert tours.
2. If the ‘Dome happens to host a concert, the acoustics are horrible. With the price tag of modern concerts, you probably want to be able to enjoy the music.
3. The concourses are too narrow, which means lines stretch across the whole concourse, or sometimes merge into other lines meaning you basically have to shove your way through to get anywhere.
4. The Stampede board is a drain on the ‘Dome with its concession and parking control and hampers the patrons from getting decent concessions.
5. The entry ways are not set up for current security needs.
6. The requirement to put all the beer in a central location and pump it up with nitrogen leads to bad beer to the point it has its own nickname – crack beer. This diminishes the patron experience.
If you went to an event at a building such as this would you like the building? Probably not. They’ve been talking about replacing the ‘Dome at least since 2008 so this isn’t new, or a knee jerk to Edmonton. Calgary had the unfortunate timing to build in the mid 80’s before arenas became more of the multipurpose venues that they are today. Take a look at the Anaheim Honda Center built less than 10 years later, and the differences are shocking.