Athens 2004 Olympics venues, a decade later | GTAMotorcycle.com

Athens 2004 Olympics venues, a decade later

M

mmmnaked

Banned
Man, hosting the Olympics is wonderful... when is it gonna be our turn!!

http://gizmodo.com/the-sad-desolate-state-of-athens-olympic-venues-10-ye-1617897127

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It's odd that instead of tailoring the event around existing facilities, they build entirely new ones to host these ridiculous games and then have them fall into disrepair. Taxpayers? Pfft.
 
Corporate welfare at its finest
 
The Olympics have a long history of being hype, expensive and very seldom offering real long term infrastructure that isn't hard to maintain. Greece is a very bad example, country is broke. Thank goodness most Toronto Olympic bids fall short.
I am getting a velodrome for the PanAm games in my back yard, its costs have gone up 10 million during construction, and doubled since the intial estimates. But hey , its a special track made in France that can be disassembled and then we can do something else with the place. It is the only velodrome for cycling within 3hrs of Toronto (London and Thunderbay have the others) so maybe it will continue, but our municipality has never managed anything that broke even on operating costs. I'm looking forward to the crowds, parking and traffic and road closures, should be the treat.
 
I always thought there was an advantage hosting the games. I guess fir certain countries they made a loss
 
RockerGuy said:
I always thought there was an advantage hosting the games. I guess fir certain countries they made a loss
Click to expand...

depends on how you are counting the advantage...

lots of infratstructure investment to host the games, afterward, does it become under utilized and then a cash drain? This is what often happens. he venues are a flurry of business for the two weeks and then become white elephants.

Build a hockey arena to host olympic ice hockey. In Canada, the added ice resources would be a good thing, in Japan, possibly a building empty half of the time...
The debate can be further clouded by the $ the big event brings in, does it outmatch the cost of investment or most of it?

what is the cost (non monetary ) of venues becoming abandoned after they are no longer needed? if they can not be re-purposed, what are the options? Not too many things you can do with a ski jump if you no longer need it to be a ski jump.
 
RockerGuy said:
I always thought there was an advantage hosting the games. I guess fir certain countries they made a loss
Click to expand...

Yup, there's definitely a benefit. Your crime rates go up and never drop back down to the original levels again.

Oh.... Wait....
 
One big advantage to hosting a games on the scale of the Olympics (specially summer) is the multilevel government spending on things like transit and roads (because they are now forced to). If done well that is the big positive legacy (assuming they go to the right places). For an area like the GTA this could be a big win, the money has to come from somewhere though so expect cuts to other areas and more of the GTA's tax money being spent in the GTA (as opposed to be dispersed across the province/country).

One big downside are these event locations that become white elephants after the games like the pictures show. There needs to be a plan on how to use these locations after the games and to follow the new trend of building disposable or portable stadiums. Smart architecture like the foundation for the temporary stadium is designed as the foundation to a condo tower to be built there right afterwards...

For new stadiums that will remain in place. The tax payers should be paid back via a seat tax. For every event in the stadium as long as it stands say $2 (or maybe say 10%) of every ticket sold goes back to the government coffers. Not sure if that would work for the one in Hamilton since it will be way underused but for things like a hockey arena, etc. (every game, every concert, forever).

There is also the big uptick in employment leading up to the games (construction, etc.) but this leads to a big hangover afterwards as these people hit the unemployment lines.

Many of these issues can be dealt with, by thinking a little outside the box...
 
backmarkerducati said:
One big advantage to hosting a games on the scale of the Olympics (specially summer) is the multilevel government spending on things like transit and roads (because they are now forced to). If done well that is the big positive legacy (assuming they go to the right places). For an area like the GTA this could be a big win, the money has to come from somewhere though so expect cuts to other areas and more of the GTA's tax money being spent in the GTA (as opposed to be dispersed across the province/country).

One big downside are these event locations that become white elephants after the games like the pictures show. There needs to be a plan on how to use these locations after the games and to follow the new trend of building disposable or portable stadiums. Smart architecture like the foundation for the temporary stadium is designed as the foundation to a condo tower to be built there right afterwards...

For new stadiums that will remain in place. The tax payers should be paid back via a seat tax. For every event in the stadium as long as it stands say $2 (or maybe say 10%) of every ticket sold goes back to the government coffers. Not sure if that would work for the one in Hamilton since it will be way underused but for things like a hockey arena, etc. (every game, every concert, forever).

There is also the big uptick in employment leading up to the games (construction, etc.) but this leads to a big hangover afterwards as these people hit the unemployment lines.

Many of these issues can be dealt with, by thinking a little outside the box...
Click to expand...

but that still involves thinking...
 
Toronto is doing well in utilizing Public-Private Partnerships to get the facilities up and running. There will be utilization for these facilities far beyond the Pan am games with private operators continuing to use the facilities for profit. For example the CIBC athletics facility at York University, the field hockey facility for UofT. Maybe not all of the 30 odd facilities will rake in big profits, but they will be put to good use in the long run. The money for the bulk of these have been raised by the private market.

Also, the $500 million Olympic Village is being built by a private developer (consortium). I'm sure is being designed/built with the idea of converting to up-market properties after the games. West Don lands is a prime property area and they were very lucky to get the chance to build there!
 
don't forget when we private sector folks place "donations" , its not just because we have lots of spare cash, its possible there is a naming right, maybe some tax deferral or not paid at all , some publicity in the form of low hanging fruit. That's tax dollars that don't go into the conventional flow, it becomes a velodrome.
I hope the pan am games do well and bring some cash into the GTA , they may well be better managed than Olympic games. The Olympics has so many layers on the onion before you even start spending at the regional level.
 
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