Vancouver 2010 Olympics...

[North East Goon]

Tell me again why Calgary was not awarded these games? Yes I am jealous and bitter.

http://www.tsn.ca/olympics/news_stor...179877&hubname=

[fanforever1986]

One Word: Chinooks.

[I-Hate-Hulse]

I still think having two sets of Winter Games facilities is a bad idea. We can barely fund one of them, let alone utilize two of them. Worst of all, Calgary's being the older of the two.... I can decisions being made to axe some of them.

[Looger]

uh...

i live in bc off and on, and i have to say - don't judge these olympics until they're over.

there's more than a small chance in my opinion that they will be such a cluster##### that we won't be left wondering if there'll even BE another winter games in canada.

yes, it's that bad. yes, it's that disorganized. yes, it's that behind.

message to all tradesmen: if you want to make $500 per hour, be hovering around vancouver or whistler a month before the olympics!

[troutman]

I read the other day that global warming is turning Whistler's snow to slush.

[Flash Walken]

This is going to be a boondoggle that the provincial NDP's would be jealous of.

I HATE that the olympics are coming. It's one big joke.

[Clarkey]

They need a bunch of oilmen to turn the thing around.

[Daradon]

Apart from the jealousy (and I don't know why, we did it first) Van will catch up and put on a good games. Maybe it will show the government that they need to do things differently though.

There have been bigger ball drops in oly history for sure.

[habernac]

the last Olympics, summer or winter, that actually turned a profit were in Calgary. Now the Oly's are a big sinkhole that you can throw money into. I'm glad we didn't get them here. Vancouver can have it.

[Mr.Coffee]

Originally Posted by habernac

the last Olympics, summer or winter, that actually turned a profit were in Calgary. Now the Oly's are a big sinkhole that you can throw money into. I'm glad we didn't get them here. Vancouver can have it.

How true. People need to sit around and think, "guys... I really would love a little more debt. How could do that? Olympics? Great idea. Done let's get it going."

[Barnes]

Originally Posted by Mr.Coffee

How true. People need to sit around and think, "guys... I really would love a little more debt. How could do that? Olympics? Great idea. Done let's get it going."

Yes, not having a debt attracts millions of people to Calgary every year.

Some would argue that the Olympics put Calgary on the map. If the Olympics lost money would you as a city have passed them up or would you see that a lot of the infrastructure and facilities continue to benefit the city 18 years after the fact?

[Mr.Coffee]

Originally Posted by Barnes

Yes, not having a debt attracts millions of people to Calgary every year.

Some would argue that the Olympics put Calgary on the map. If the Olympics lost money would you as a city have passed them up or would you see that a lot of the infrastructure and facilities continue to benefit the city 18 years after the fact?

Ummmm Montreal has their damn hands tied because of Olympic debt.

Calgary did it right, had excellent operations planning. Every minute of the two week period was planned to perfection with contingencies for when things went wrong. Buildings were estimated properly over and above even what they thought they would cost giving planners room to hedge costs on their budgets. Calgary's Olympics have been stated by the Olympic Comittee themselves at one point some time ago as the most successful Winter Games ever hosted.

So in answer to your question, if you do it like Montreal- no, I wouldn't want to host it. If you do it like Calgary, yes, I would love for the city to host it. But right now Vancouver is looking more like a Montreal then a Calgary.

And also, just saying... Calgary doesn't attract MILLIONS of people. Maybe thousands.

[Red Mile Style]

Vancouver will be awesome.

Don't get me wrong, the 88 Olympics were fantastic - probably had a large part of me moving to Calgary as I was 4 at the time, but Vancouver is such a freaking great city, I see it hard for them to screw it up.

[Sylvanfan]

The goofy thing is that they'll have two sets of training facilities in Western Canada and zero out East where 75% of the countries population is based. They either should have went with Calgary or Quebec City if they were using logic when backing a bid. These Olympics will leave a legacy as bad or worse than Montreal. But the funny thing is the people in Vancouver will have analytical committees analyze what went wrong with those Olympics for 50 years afterwards, pooring even more money into the sink hole.

[Julio]

Originally Posted by Mr.Coffee

Ummmm Montreal has their damn hands tied because of Olympic debt.

Calgary did it right, had excellent operations planning. Every minute of the two week period was planned to perfection with contingencies for when things went wrong. Buildings were estimated properly over and above even what they thought they would cost giving planners room to hedge costs on their budgets. Calgary's Olympics have been stated by the Olympic Comittee themselves at one point some time ago as the most successful Winter Games ever hosted.

So in answer to your question, if you do it like Montreal- no, I wouldn't want to host it. If you do it like Calgary, yes, I would love for the city to host it. But right now Vancouver is looking more like a Montreal then a Calgary.

And also, just saying... Calgary doesn't attract MILLIONS of people. Maybe thousands.

One of the biggest reasons that Calgary's facilities came in on time and under budget is that they were built during the early to mid 80's...not exactly rocking times in the construction business in Alberta. My biggest memory of coming out and seeing Calgary pree 88 was seeing the OVC and the exmansion of McMahon under way,with HUGE "No workers needed" signs all over. Very different from now.