Stadiums
I was just in a Melbourne, Australia (4.3 million people) and was drooling when I saw the facilities they have. A downtown 50,000 retractible roofed stadium (Etihad Stadium) for both AFL and soccer, another 100,000 AFL/cricket stadium (MCI)a new 30,000 outdoor rugby stadium (AAMI Stadium). The tennis facility is off the charts and they're in the process of building another retractible roofed woman's stadium...which is next to Rod Laver Arena (retractible too). I asked the tour guide where the money comes from, and she said taxpayers. I started to describe what Calgary has, and was rather embarrassed. She said Melbourne is pretty much the sports capitol of the world. They really believe spending money on sports is a good thing. It's what they're known for. There's even some big interest in hockey down there. Obviously, it's not a good comparison of cities and situations, but you'd think we'd have at least one fancy arena in this allegedly rich town/province.
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