Olympics..... Vancouver!

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Don't know how to feel..... Excited, but also a little worried about getting killed by price hikes in 2010. Anyone experience this problem in former Olympics places like Utah, or Sydney? Feel like I'm going to pay for this through the nose as a tax payer, over and over again. Will I have to move to a small village soon?

 

Well, I was living in Montreal during the 76 Olympics but given the fact that I was less than a year old at the time I really don't remember much about them. However, I have heard so many horror stories from my older relatives about the preparations for / crowds during / cost of the Olympics that I can only say, better your city than mine.

 

Well, Monaco hosts the Grand Prix *every* year, and there aren't any tax payers at all there!

Seriously, your local hospitality professionals are going to make a better profit than ever before - everyone from the guy who owns the corner hot dog stand to the girl who's putting herself through school as a hotel chambermaid is going to come out of this in an exciting new tax bracket. It's their newfound wealth, imported into the Canadian economy by tourists from all over the world, that will pay for most of the Olympics. Tourist attractions pay for themselves.

Go Vancouver! Congratulations!

 

True, and the construction industry always does quite well building sites and expanding infrastructure but that still leaves everyone else putting up with the hassle of construction not to mention the extra crowding caused by a large volume of tourists visiting in a short period of time.

Plus, you invariably end up with Olympic quality sports facilities that you have very limited use for (unless you count letting tourists pay to use the bobsled runs or taking your velodrome and spending more money to convert it to a biodome as a good use ).

My Aunt runs a series of annual craft shows in Australia and her Sydney show has been located for the last couple years in one of the Olympic facilities that was converted into a convention hall. I hear all the time about how it is like a ghost town out there now that the Olympics are done.

 

Best make the best of it now that it's going to be here, but i still have problems with the old adage which claims that Olympics boost tourism for years to come. Vancouver already has a pretty good tourism industry (maybe not these days with the paranoia of mad cow and sars spreading to Vancouver, where we've had neither), and I suppose more exposure means more tourists, since we're pretty equipped to handle tourists in the city anyway (unlike Lillehammer). Vancouver/Whistler will be a good spot because they already have some amazing facilities, and don't have to build a whole lot (except for the infrastructures, which I have my doubts about their being ready in time. We're talking about MASSive projects for roads... you have no idea unless you've seen the sea to sky "highway" and our really long and really important 3 lane bridge servicing millions of people daily). Anyway, if all goes well... this city will be even more incredible, but there's a load of work ahead for planners, and not very much time.... or public money. We'll see.

 

Monaco has a lot of tax-payers. It has nearly no goverment expenses.

Me, I am principally against any hosting of a big sport event. I am convinced, that it does economically cost more then it brings, except in countries like Monaco, where it's a magnet and amusement for yet more tax-payers. And Monaco repeats it every year. So, the infrastructure is not wasted. Quite the opposite. It's a good investment. But the needed infrastructure for only one event in 30 years ? What then, with the whole stuff ?

 

First off, congrats to Vancouver!

I thought having the Olympics here in SLC was great! I didn't really notice any drastic price hikes. The biggest problem I saw was the amount of people on the streets! The Olympics are great, because of them SLC and the surrounding cites have new or upgraded facilities...like the speed skating oval, which is just down the street from me; and all the different things at the Utah Olympic Park like the long jump, and the bobsled course.

The Olympics bring a lot of money to the local area that gets to host them, and a ton of entertainment! There were so many concerts here it seemed like they never stopped. It was a great experience for me.

 

I had mixed emotions about the result too. I'm in Vancouver like Julius Skull as well, and a little uncertain about what to expect.

People are comparing this to the time when Expo '86 came to Vancouver. I really think the city needs this boost in entertainment. Compared to the other cities, there really isn't much to do in Vancouver. No daily festivities like the ones I see in the streets of Montreal.

J. Skull mentioned improvements on the sea to sky highway and such... I think the city needs to improve public transit REGARDLESS of whether the Olympics came or not. Having the Olympics should ought to motivate the government and quicken the pace of the city's growth.

As for the long term effects, I think I'm with Yago on this one. I'd rather see the money put into the Vancouver Canucks instead. I know they've only been making a profit recently... but keeping the team here for on a long-term basis I think would make more money than the one-shot deal with the Olympics.

 

Well, I have only visited Vancouver twice but it was instantly evident that the bridge is in desperate need of expansion. However, I find the notion that our cities need to be hosting the Olympics before the government is willing to do anything about such problems to be highly distastful.

I just about died laughing when I heard that the organizers for the last Toronto bid for the summer Olympics were selling it as an excuse to redevelop the waterfront. As far as I could tell the areas that were proposed to be redeveloped had absolutely nothing to do with the planned Olympic venues. Good grief, if civic improvements are in desperate need of being made do we really need to have a major international event to justify that the money be spent?