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Remembering the Olympics

#41
Jonyak said:
I respectfully disagree with this.

I beleive hosting the olympics is an accomplishment.

how is it not?
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well for one the programs in sport/arts that kids used to access are disappearing......sending millionaire pros to represent us kind of goes against the spirit of the olympic games.....by the by i don't suppose you got any of those comped tix that your taxes will pay for......it was only recently that montreal paid off the last olympic bill,and say isn't that stadium they built falling apart.....if you feel like paying that kind of dough for a few feel-good weeks,cool,but the big picture is still the same when everything is over.....

think of it in terms of who profits and who pays and it does not feel so great....the public gets a huge bill for infrastructure,security etc, while hotels and restaurants ,souvenier stores cash in for a few weeks...the economic benefits are short term and the bills last for decades
 
#42
Jim Campbell said:
well for one the programs in sport/arts that kids used to access are disappearing......sending millionaire pros to represent us kind of goes against the spirit of the olympic games.....by the by i don't suppose you got any of those comped tix that your taxes will pay for......it was only recently that montreal paid off the last olympic bill,and say isn't that stadium they built falling apart.....if you feel like paying that kind of dough for a few feel-good weeks,cool,but the big picture is still the same when everything is over.....

think of it in terms of who profits and who pays and it does not feel so great....the public gets a huge bill for infrastructure,security etc, while hotels and restaurants ,souvenier stores cash in for a few weeks...the economic benefits are short term and the bills last for decades
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Just because Montreal just paid their last bill doesn't mean they didn't get all the tax benefit to have paid it off years ago. Governments are notoriously bad at managing money and spending intended revenues where they are supposed to be spent. That's a whole 'nother discussion and one that is bound to get locked if we go there, so let's not. I'm just saying, there are HUGE revenues generated from the Games for government entities at all levels.
 
#43
Eublet said:
Just because Montreal just paid their last bill doesn't mean they didn't get all the tax benefit to have paid it off years ago. Governments are notoriously bad at managing money and spending intended revenues where they are supposed to be spent. That's a whole 'nother discussion and one that is bound to get locked if we go there, so let's not. I'm just saying, there are HUGE revenues generated from the Games for government entities at all levels.
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sorry but i doubt if the revenues generated will even come close to what the costs were....i'm all for hosting sporting events....but the guys that stand to make the profits should be investing their own dough......mortgages for stadiums are amortized over decades,revenue streams from the olympics last for weeks or months at most
 
#44
Jim Campbell said:
sorry but i doubt if the revenues generated will even come close to what the costs were....i'm all for hosting sporting events....but the guys that stand to make the profits should be investing their own dough......mortgages for stadiums are amortized over decades,revenue streams from the olympics last for weeks or months at most
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Places don't do it for nothing. There are lots of benefits sought after from hosting the games. You spend money to make money. The economic impact from such an endeavor is huge. It definitely helps to have it somewhere that already has the free enterprise infrastructure in place...no doubt. But you have no idea how far from now people will be coming to Vancouver because of the winter games. I think you have to be a marketing person to understand the payback of things like this. It's the same reason companies will spend millions of dollars for a 30 second commercial during the Superbowl. They aren't ignorant and just looking for a reason to spend a bunch of money.
 
#45
For all but the few who profit, the Olympics are a scam and the IOC is an organized crime gang with egos the size of Oympic stadiums and security 'needs' akin to a G-20 summit, as if anyone knows or cares who the IOC goons are but obviously they have reasons to be afraid given all the bribe-taking, conning, and influence peddling they do.

The idea that the true costs are ever made transparent or recouped, much less by those who paid those costs, is utterly laughable.

Greece is on the verge of bankruptcy. It was totally irresponsible and economically reprehensible for that country to host the Olympics.
The state of Georgia is a financial mess too, as is Utah. So too Spain & Italy. Etc.

Hosting the Olympics is an accomplishment on par with what Bernie Madoff did for a living, and it's the same style of 'free enterprise' Ponzi scheme.

One local merchant, his retaurant just a few blocks away from the mobs at ground zero, put it best in the press : ''For the majority of local businessmen the Olympics has been like an arranged marriage at which your bride shows up looking fat and ugly, her friends and relatives require all manner of attention & consume evrything, then she leaves you after the reception and you're stuck paying for the works, with no gifts, nookie, or a honeymoon.''

That sheeple can be so easily duped & robbed en masse, and then see them dancing and whooping about it, was a very interesting study in mass control and why the political ####stem is so far off the rails.

The athletes are being used like bands in a 'pay to play' battle of the bands scenario, or a porn actress. Oh, and how many gold medalists that become sudden millionaires pay back the gov't funding they received for years? Same with the arts, mind you. Still, I fully supprt funding them, especially the arts, provided they excel (and ideally pay it back if they strike it rich).

EDIT : accuracy.
 
#49
MakiSupaStar said:
You my friend are a very bitter person. You might try wear pants that aren't so tight.
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Yes I am bitter, but with very good reason. :) My pants have nothing do do with it (I only watch the Olympics in my loose-fitting underwear). Besides, unless you live in Canada, you probably have absolutely no idea what I'm talking about concerning this subject.
 
#51
bass12 said:
Yes I am bitter, but with very good reason. :) My pants have nothing do do with it (I only watch the Olympics in my loose-fitting underwear). Besides, unless you live in Canada, you probably have absolutely no idea what I'm talking about concerning this subject.
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From what I'm gathering it has less to do with Canada and more to do with you.
 
#52
Eublet said:
Places don't do it for nothing. There are lots of benefits sought after from hosting the games. You spend money to make money. The economic impact from such an endeavor is huge. It definitely helps to have it somewhere that already has the free enterprise infrastructure in place...no doubt. But you have no idea how far from now people will be coming to Vancouver because of the winter games. I think you have to be a marketing person to understand the payback of things like this. It's the same reason companies will spend millions of dollars for a 30 second commercial during the Superbowl. They aren't ignorant and just looking for a reason to spend a bunch of money.
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obviously you have very little grasp on the realities of this....there is no free infrastructure.....it's all been paid for....here that usually means a little private money and a a lot of public.......the big winners in all this are private businesses who will shoulder very little of the cost to put on the show....every dollar they spend in fees will ultimately be written off at tax time.....since there is only one taxpayer,the bill is just moved from vancouver to the whole country....

advertisers spend money to make a profit.....cities are not businesses....

i think you would be well served to find out for yourself how this works
 
#53
bmc said:
From what I'm gathering it has less to do with Canada and more to do with you.
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Well, since my opinions are just that - opinions, you could say that it has more to do with me than with anything else. I am, obviously, stating my opinion, but that opinion is based on things I saw at the 2010 Olympics that I found disturbing, specifically on the part of the Olympic committee but also on the part of many "fans". You are clearly not disturbed by the same things I am. Fine. I love what I consider to be the "true spirit" of the Olympics and I think that the Olympics have the remarkable ability to bring the world together in a positive way. The Olympics are not, in my opinion, about a host country desperately grabbing the reigns and trying to clobber the competition for the sake of making that host nation feel superior to others. This year I got to see that many Canadians are hypocritical regarding something that we Canadians have long accused Americans of being: overly patriotic. It seems that our lack of patriotism was the result, not of a calm and down-to-earth disposition, but of an inferiority complex coupled with the absence of a viable outlet. The 2010 Olympics, clearly, were that outlet and what I saw made me feel a little ashamed.
 
#55
MatticusMania said:
Its okay bass12, Im a self loathing [del]American[/del] Resident of the US.
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:p I have to say, I find it strange when people react so strongly to my statements criticising patriotic displays. They often take it as some back-handed slap at Canada. I think Canada is a wonderful place to live and I don't take my good fortune (being a Canadian citizen) for granted. But I don't like displays of patriotism. In fact, I think it's more the displays of patriotism themselves than the feelings of patriotism that bother me (I can see that one perplexing a few readers). And yeah, the whole issue of national pride I just find ridiculous. :hiding:
 
#56
bass12 said:
Well, since my opinions are just that - opinions, you could say that it has more to do with me than with anything else. I am, obviously, stating my opinion, but that opinion is based on things I saw at the 2010 Olympics that I found disturbing, specifically on the part of the Olympic committee but also on the part of many "fans". You are clearly not disturbed by the same things I am. Fine. I love what I consider to be the "true spirit" of the Olympics and I think that the Olympics have the remarkable ability to bring the world together in a positive way. The Olympics are not, in my opinion, about a host country desperately grabbing the reigns and trying to clobber the competition for the sake of making that host nation feel superior to others. This year I got to see that many Canadians are hypocritical regarding something that we Canadians have long accused Americans of being: overly patriotic. It seems that our lack of patriotism was the result, not of a calm and down-to-earth disposition, but of an inferiority complex coupled with the absence of a viable outlet. The 2010 Olympics, clearly, were that outlet and what I saw made me feel a little ashamed.
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it was not that long ago that avery brundage,chairman of the ioc tried to get skier jc killy to give back his gold medal because the french government job that paid his expenses was deemed to be a sham.....now we are sending pro athletes to compete....

the spirit of the olympics is money.....there have been numerous accounts of ioc officials soliciting bribes for favorable reports for hopeful cities....juan samaranch comes to mind.....

sport used to be more about sending your home town heroes to compete with the next town.....they lived and worked along side the fans.....i had teachers at my high school that played pro football here during the summer

now you would be hard pressed to find more than one or two players on any pro team that come from the community,or who will remain after they are finished.....

while we may think we have participated in some kind of national moment i'm not so sure....the thing about sports is there will always be another game.....canada won this time and made a huge deal out of it......what will the mood be like next time we lose
 
#57
Indeed, not to sound all crass or anything, but I also feel the same way about people who put so much pride in their ethnicity as well. None of us chose the position that we were born into, I dont think thats really something to be proud about. One should be proud of the achievements theyve accomplished or the adversity they've overcome, not something they were handed/designated at birth.
 
#58
MatticusMania said:
Indeed, not to sound all crass or anything, but I also feel the same way about people who put so much pride in their ethnicity as well. None of us chose the position that we were born into, I dont think thats really something to be proud about. One should be proud of the achievements theyve accomplished or the adversity they've overcome, not something they were handed/designated at birth.
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I definitely agree. I think that, very often, people think of pride as being the opposite of shame, which it isn't necessarily. I'm not, for example, proud to be a Canadian - but I'm not ashamed of being a Canadian either. I am, however, proud of my monstrously enormous skills as a bassist! On the other hand, I'm not so proud of myself for overestimating my musical skills and broadcasting my inflated notions of myself on the internet... :D
 
#59
MatticusMania said:
Indeed, not to sound all crass or anything, but I also feel the same way about people who put so much pride in their ethnicity as well. None of us chose the position that we were born into, I dont think thats really something to be proud about. One should be proud of the achievements theyve accomplished or the adversity they've overcome, not something they were handed/designated at birth.
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Haha, you've said it better then i could have, and i absolutely agree. In fact, to prefer a country to others simply because you were born in it is kinda...egoistic i guess is the word i'm looking for.
 
#60
*Sigh* so off topic but.....

The ridiculous statements I have read about having no pride in one's country and why feel pride over a perceived luck-of-the-draw birthplace have just caused me to throw up all over myself. If that's how people feel.....well.....we are lost. :scowl:

I think some people need to talk to their grandparents and great-grand parents and find out what the boys on the boats were feeling on D-Day and why there were there.
 

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