Vancouver's New Olympic Arena: Money NOT Well Spent

by Jes

I've made it known that I'm not a big fan of the Olympics these days, especially since British Columbia (Well, the Lower Mainland) was cursed with holding this expensive two-week corporate wankfest.

Once again, John Furlong, the guy in charge of making sure big corporations and building developers rape the taxpayers violently (that's his unofficial title), took the chance to through his powder-puffed nose.

"We've done here what many people said we couldn't do -- we came home from Prague and we made a commitment in front of the world that we would get this project on time and on budget, and we would give the athletes the chance to use these venues two seasons before the Games," crowed VANOC boss John Furlong.

It's a promise kept. It's a mission accomplished."

Want a good idea of how much Right-Wing/Corporate ass our major media kiss here in Vancouver?

The Vancouver Sun, a dishrag that I wouldn't even allow my dog to poop on, declared the building to be ahead of schedule and below budget.

Built at a cost of $48.7 million, most of it from Vanoc, the facility was completed four months ahead of schedule.

NO NO NO NO NO!!

Most of the money from VANOC? Umm, no, the money is coming from the pockets of BC Taxpayers. Remember, folks, VANOC, nor its members, were ever ELECTED to spend our money like a drunk Hollywood widow.

The next time the Mainstream Mediots blast us blogs for lacking fact-checking, they ought to look in the mirror. This outright lying simply degrades the already pathetic product put out by the CanWest rags, and continually excuses the government for their poor asset management.

In addition to this, I see a lot of other MSM outlets picking up the same misinformation. They simply copy-and-paste from CanWest, failing to actually check the facts, and going to VANOC's website and looking at the original budgets.

24 Hours, a free daily known for having better journalistic integrity than the pay papers, chopped up those lies like fresh green onions.

Based on the five-year-old Vancouver 2010 bid book, however, the University of B.C. complex is $6.7 million over budget and nine months beyond its original October 2007 completion target.

This new arena is going to seat a whopping 7,500 people for what amounts to a month's worth of good hockey games. The rest of the time? It'll seat the 200 people who actually want to watch Canadian University hockey.

Money well spent ... riiiiight.

Face it, you shallow Yaletown Yuppies, the only people who benefit from the Olympics are those few corporations that are getting lucrative government contracts. Instead of solving real issues, like homelessness, housing the mentally ill, and environmental technology, we get money spend on expensive sporting facilities that will never provide their worth to the people.

With expensive ticket prices, excessive "security", and millions of taxpayers money wasted, this is one event I wish that Vancouver had never won.