He did a lot of videos before, talking about how he loves a spice market, loves food culture, loves a fish market, everybody knows how much he loves a taco, he loves riding, he loves a bike community, he loves talking, and eating, it's all perfection for him
John Oliver roasted his ass to perfection for that bit.
The Following 3 Users Say Thank You to CroFlames For This Useful Post:
I agree. To start with the biggest event was probably too much for Qatar, even though they put on as best a show as they could. Must have one 80K seater and one 60K seater etc... And for a subdued party, not everyone is a drinker. The Arabs can throw a party.
I just don't think it's the 100% waste that the West is portraying. Qatar will host more events and maybe become a place people want to go to. I'm kind of curious about Souq Waqif, where TSN were located.
You're framing your goalposts a little generously as it may not wind up being 100% in terms of percentage of money spent, but as for amount of money spent thats essentially just sitting around useless? Oh this is #1 by a long ways.
People want to bitch about Russia or Brazil's World Cups? Well...those cost between $16 and $20B each.
Clubs use most of the facilities, people use the transit infrastructure, they're getting some use out of what they built.
Qatar spent ~$220B. And thats with slavery!! Could you imagine if they had to pay construction workers like normal people?
Okay, thats for a nation with a population under 3M. They're not re-using most of those stadiums, they dont have the teams to do it, even if they did they dont have the population to fill those things. They're going to be maintenance sinks, which the Qataris will just get slaves to fix.
Slave workers notoriously dont have a lot of disposable income to go watch their slave masters kick a ball around.
Those hotels are going to probably hover around 90% vacant?
Who is taking public transit in Qatar? Probably nobody.
And then yeah, they're going to host some more events. Cool.
Oh...except its not cool. Its literally the opposite. Qatar has a narrow window of when sports can be played because its hotter than hell. Potentially literally.
So most sporting associations would have to adjust their entire schedule like FIFA did so they can play in the dead of winter.
And none of this is really focused on you personally, I just think that logistically and financially, this is not going to be the just most wasteful World Cup.
This is probably the single most wasteful event in the history of all sporting events.
I mean...just the sheer amount of resources consumed, building materials, they built an entire city for this, fuel for vehicles and travel moving migrant workers around, deaths, and just sheer mind boggling amounts of money.
Lots and lots of money.
I'm relatively certain that if you sat down with the Financials (assuming they're accurate) and really looked through the numbers? Dollar for dollar this World Cup would probably come in as the single most wasteful sporting event in history. And its probably not close.
__________________ The Beatings Shall Continue Until Morale Improves!
This Post Has Been Distilled for the Eradication of Seemingly Incurable Sadness.
If you are flammable and have legs, you are never blocking a Fire Exit. - Mitch Hedberg
The Following 16 Users Say Thank You to Locke For This Useful Post:
We were just talking about the stadiums but yes you are right, they built an entire city infrastructure hoping to one day turn it into Dubai.
But it cost taxpayers nothing right? In fact I think we might have spent more taxpayer money sending people there the last month
They didnt even fill the stadiums during the World Cup itself. How do you figure they're going to fare without Marquee events?
Again...goalposts. I'm no 'Middle East' specialist or anything, but I dont think they even have taxes ergo...no taxpayers. At least not within something we would consider a Western Tax Structure.
I still have difficulty wrapping my mind around it. All that money, all those resources all of that Carbon...all of those workers and the suffering...
Yeah. I think we can safely call it a waste.
But who knows? They're crafty folk those Qataris, maybe they'll parlay having a crapload of decrepit, empty and decaying buildings and a ghost-city into some sweet Hollywood cash as movie sets?
Or one really big Paintball course.
__________________ The Beatings Shall Continue Until Morale Improves!
This Post Has Been Distilled for the Eradication of Seemingly Incurable Sadness.
If you are flammable and have legs, you are never blocking a Fire Exit. - Mitch Hedberg
The Following 2 Users Say Thank You to Locke For This Useful Post:
FIFA got way too greedy. They had a good thing going with all the handouts and corruption. Even if their World Cups were Russia/USA or England/Qatar they probably would have gotten away with it.
Johnny Harris has a great video on (potentially) how the Qataris convinced FIFA execs to vote for them. It's a pretty good summary of the connections.
The Following 2 Users Say Thank You to Cappy For This Useful Post:
As far as Qatar, it was a national pride thing and a finger to the neighboring Saudi's and UAE to show what power their money can wield globally. Nothing more, nothing less.
No infrastructure was too much, no bribe to Fifa, Uefa and anyone else was too much, no world wide known ambassador like Becks would cost too much.
Like the Saudi's are doing with golf, proving everyone has a price.
Don’t forget the 2029 Asian Winter Games in Saudi Arabia.
Wait this isn't a joke? "We" are so stupid. No wonder we have issues like climate and environment to deal with. It's one thing to take some action, but not enough and wonder why were having issues. It's a whole other to do wasteful things like this, just because we think we can.
Wait this isn't a joke? "We" are so stupid. No wonder we have issues like climate and environment to deal with. It's one thing to take some action, but not enough and wonder why were having issues. It's a whole other to do wasteful things like this, just because we think we can.
you're not going to go skiing in Saudi Arabia after?
US Soccer drama as Berhalter is in hot water for an abusive incident with his then girlfriend, now,wife, when he was 18. That was 25 years ago, and they have 4 kids.
Twist comes as the accuser (and he and his wife have admitted the incident), is Claudio Reyna’s wife, and Gio Reyna’s mother who,is/was best friends with Berhalter’s wife and Claudio Reyna was the best man at Berhalter’s wedding.
Brought out now by her, to ruin Berhalter, because her son Gio was benched at the WC by Berhalter for having a terrible attitude, and not putting effort in training and almost sent home.
Edit: They actually were basically trying to blackmail him while at the WC, by sending messages to US soccer after her son got benched, only now revealing their identity.
US Soccer drama as Berhalter is in hot water for an abusive incident with his then girlfriend, now,wife, when he was 18. That was 25 years ago, and they have 4 kids.
Twist comes as the accuser (and he and his wife have admitted the incident), is Claudio Reyna’s wife, and Gio Reyna’s mother who,is/was best friends with Berhalter’s wife and Claudio Reyna was the best man at Berhalter’s wedding.
Brought out now by her, to ruin Berhalter, because her son Gio was benched at the WC by Berhalter for having a terrible attitude, and not putting effort in training and almost sent home.
Edit: They actually were basically trying to blackmail him while at the WC, by sending messages to US soccer after her son got benched, only now revealing their identity.
Wow, wacky soccer parents genuinely dont grow up.
__________________ The Beatings Shall Continue Until Morale Improves!
This Post Has Been Distilled for the Eradication of Seemingly Incurable Sadness.
If you are flammable and have legs, you are never blocking a Fire Exit. - Mitch Hedberg
The Following 6 Users Say Thank You to Locke For This Useful Post:
