The Calgary Olympics were an anomaly in that things went smoothly and relatively cheaply.
But don't forget, that was before the Winter Olympics were quite so huge, and before the Olympics went from being a mega-event to the biggest shit show in the world.
And a word about graft - it's done a bit differently here. We are a bureaucratic people so the first wastage is in the overstaffing at the top. Then the construction unions and the contractors drag their heels during the building phase. Deadlines approach, overtime is added, unforeseen costs escalate (see Montreal 1976).
Meanwhile, the governments in charge keeps repeating the mantra that everything will be on time and on budget.
Difference here is that I don;t expect the government boobs in charge to be flying off to the Caymans with bags full of cash. Typically, they low ball the costs so it's an easy sell. The concrete shithole downtown (aka "Rogers Centre" or "SkyDome") was going to cost $150 million. For the longest time, we were told that costs would be under $200 million. A couple of years later we found out that it cost $600 million. It was most recently sold to Rogers ( who own the Blue Jays) for $25 million).
But I digress.
There are 7 new facilities being built. Improvements to all the other facilities as well.
The Toronto 2015 Organizing Committee (TO2015), along with all three levels of government, will spend about CA$672 million in upgrading and building new venues in the region.[16] An additional CA$760 million will be spent in operating expenses such as venue management and marketing
- Wikipedia
a new Athletes village that will become condos after the games built on expensive Toronto real estate ($710 million). Security ($250 million an rising), assorted other infrastructure improvements (some which won't be ready in time.) The mascot cost almost $400,000 to develop. Transporting the athletes and putting up officals is a cost that I can't find. Advertising - no dollar figures I can find, but $5 million was spent on producing and running single ad about 4 months ago...
TORONTO - A single slick advertisement for the TO2015 Pan Am and Para-Pan Am Games cost over $5 million to produce and air on television, in movie theatres and flights across the country, the Toronto Sun has learned.
And the government agency responsible for creating the ad won’t say how much more it plans to spend to continue to publicize the games.
Documents obtained through a Freedom of Information request, and provided to the Sun, show the Ontario government, through the Ontario Tourism Marketing Partnership Corp., spent over $1.5-million to create the so-called “Invade” campaign. It then spent $3.7 million to buy ad time on television, movie theatres, online and on Air Canada in-flight TV for a spot that runs just over a minute long.
This is indicative of the kind of "trust us" mentality at work here. I have seen this scenario play out many times here in Canada. A great way to spend our money so we can see some Bolivian guy win a medal in bowling.
Yes, bowling is an official sport, along with such fan favourites as racquetball, squash, archery and softball.
My blood is boiling...
