Putting on a venue of this size is quite a task. The level of coordination by the Vancouver organizing committee is an astounding task that shouldn't be envied by any but the most stout. Well, we're only 4 or so years away and the problems have started already.
The head of the Vancouver 2010 Olympic organizing committee warns the region's building boom could escalate construction costs for Games venues between 40 per cent and 50 per cent.
With an original building budget of $470 million for construction alone, means that the capital costs have risen from $620 million to over $900 million. And that's now. By the time the games actually come to town, the costs will more than likely top a billion dollars. How many zeros is that? A lot!
Will the economic benefits of something so big be so big? It's hard to imagine. Even with increased tourism for the next decade, the cashflow through the coffers of the local working guy won't be seen. Will the games bring businesses to the province? Maybe, but not so many that it's worth the costs of bringing the games to our fair province. Whistler, I believe, will benefit from the exposure to the rest of the world as it's a resort town.
And why would you forecast costs in the future with today's dollar? Who's doing the financing on these projects? The team that has been assembled to do this are, from what I can tell, brilliant business people, so how could they screw up so bad?
I've seen the figures on how profitable the Olympics are to the hosting city, and they aren't good. How many games in the last 40 years have seen a profit? It's been a while since I read about it, but it's not many. The VANOC should've taken this into consideration when they were putting the package together for the Olympic Committee. Let's hope that we can go against the odds and make this the best, cheapest games to date.
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