Toronto Olympic Bid: I told you so, you losers!

The BBQ Pit
1

In this thread, I opined that Toronto bid for the 2008 Olympics was a hopeless, lost cause, and that the whole process was rigged from the start and that Beijing would win easily.

Right up until today, every media outlet in Canada has said Toronto could win. “Neck and neck,” the Toronto Star called it. Many stories were written about how China’s disgusting human rights record would hurt their cause.

Well, they held the vote today, and it wasn’t even close. China almost had as many votes in the first round as the other four cities combined. In the second round Beijing won with absurd ease. 56 votes to 22 for Toronto. Most of the votes came predcided, apparently under pressure from Juan Antonio Samaranch, the top thief. The fix was obviously in; as I stated years ago, the decision was made years ago, and there was no real “vote” to be had.

We spent $36 million on the BID. $36 million, most of it taken from the taxpayer, for absolutely nothing. $36 million which was $6 million over budget for the BID. What a fucking joke. What a colossal waste of money, and what a complete embarassment for Toronto and for Canada. We were played for suckers and we went along with it like suckers.

And yet I am thrilled we didn’t get the Olympics. Toronto’s already nearing bankruptcy, $2 billion in the hole. Based on my read of the bid, a Toronto Olympics would have been arguably the greatest financial and city planning boondoggle in Canadian history. It would have been a catastrophe. Losses would have exceeded $3 billion, at least. Maybe more.

What a fiasco this whole thing was. We spent millions on an idiot bid for an event we shouldn’t have even wanted and didn’t have any chance to get anyway. Why didn’t they just get $36 million in small bills and set fire to them? At least then the homeless people would have had something to warm up by this winter.

It’s appropriate, of course, that the IOC chose China, a vicious and evil dictatorship that murders, robs and terrorizes its own people for the paranoid, anal-retentive benefit of the Communist scum who run the country and their odious henchmen who run the secret police. They’ll probably murder a thousand people or so to put the Olympics on. The IOC will fit right in in China. They should set up their headquarters there. They should hold EVERY Olympics there. They deserve each other.

Of course, if we had any guts we’d refuse to send athletes to an Olympics held in China, but if we had any guts would we have wasted our money on this bullshit in the first place?

2

I don’t think the bid was a waste because the toronto waterfront will get 1.5 billion. That sort of cash can go a long way to making the city profitable again.

I pretty much figured from the start we wouldn’t get it. Toronto really doesn’t have the draw of a Beijing. By that I mean, 99% of the world knows Beijing and like it or hate it, people will be intrigued as to whether Beijing would do a good job or a bad job. Because of that China has really the highest potential for profit (in my opinion). Not necessarily for the games themselves, but for advertising on television.

Even if the above is wrong, China is proud and will therefore do a great job for their image’s sake.

3

I agree with you 100%. Why don’t these fucks at the IOC just say “every city that wants the games, just send each of us something nice and shiny worth around a couple grand each… and we’ll get back to you with a decision in a few years.”

What a fucking waste of taxpayers money. Oh well, at least everyone can blame Mel… :wink:

I hope to Christ Vancouver doesn’t get it in 2010. They can’t move around their own population now, let alone a sudden influx of a few hundred thousand more. It will be a disaster… a very expensive disaster.

4

Well, thank god. I’m sick to death of those arguments -

It’ll bring needed improvements in housing/transportation/pollution cleanup/redevelopment, etc., etc.

Well, if they’re so needed, why don’t you implement them anyway, without waiting for the fucking games? If you need a new subway line, build the fucker!

It’s claimed that the Toronto waterfront needs $1.5 bil in investment. Either it would need that only if there were an Olympics, or it would need that whether or not there were an Olympics. If the former, what’s the point? If the latter, why didn’t all the money that got wasted on the stupid bid go into the necessary investment?

5

I’ve been to Toronto. I like it. If I actually gave a shit about the Olympics, I might even consider attending. Not that I think they should have spent 36 mil on the bid, but, hell that’s like, what, a couple of grand American?

What irks me is that certian powers that be in my riot-torn Marge Schott-having racially-divided public transportation-lacking Larry Flynt-prosecuting gay-discriminating godforsaken shithole of a town think that we’ve got what it takes to be an Olympic city (After a few billion in investment, of course. None of which is supposed to come from public coffers. Except for the couple of million they just asked for to start their planning study, or whatever its called). “But folks, Delta will make a killing since they’ve got a stranglehold on the airport! Remember, what’s good for Delta and Chiquita and Kroger and P&G is what’s good for you. Unless you don’t happen to own any stock in those particular corporations. In that case, get in the cattle cars, you commies.”

http://www.cincinnati2012.com/

What morons.

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Congratulation on not getting the Olympics. And consider yourself lucky that they spent only 36 mil. 25 years after our Olympics, we are still paying for them ! :mad:

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Thanks for making one of my key arguments for me. You’ll end up a capitalist yet. :slight_smile:

But there’s an answer to your question; they don’t do it because the reason it’s needed is so they can pocket YOUR money. They need access to your wallet, and they sure can’t get that paying for it themselves, now can they?

The whole Toronto bid, from Toronto’s perspective, was about warring factions vying for control of waterfront property. Toronto’s underdeveloped waterfront is awash in so many bylaws, zoning complications and backroom deals that you couldn’t build a deck of cards there now. What June Jacobs or an economics professor would tell you to do would be to just sell it to the highest bidder and let them do whatever the hell they want with it as long as it meets basic pollution standards. But then the city councillors can’t line their pockets with my money, see.

Not that any of this was in the bid proposal, which was merely a stack of lies bound together with a pretty cover.

8

But that would be impolite.

9

36 fuckin’ million smakeroos.

I could have used some of that to buy textbooks for my elementary school students (their parents - yes, their PARENTS pay me to come teach in their school because the board can’t hire a science/math specialist!). At the university, I could have seen a new prof hired instead of teaching 144 students, 36 of which are via teleconference, with technology that never works… just for the sake of saving a buck…

Hey! Maybe the kids at my mother’s school could have had their curtains washed (we gave in last year, after 17 years, figuring the kids would die inhaling the shit that had settled in said window coverings.) Maybe they could have re-hired the custodians they fired, and maybe the kids would have clean desktops.

Maybe one of the kidlets I work with in service-dog-therapy work wouldn’t have had to fight OHIP to pay for her surgery.

Maybe Mike Harris (@#&!?@&#!) could have put the money in health care, education, or fuck, Mayor Mel could have used it to help the growing problem of homelessness in glorious motherfucking Toronto!

Sheesh.

What a waste of cash. It was written in the stars that China would win the bid. And why the fuck would we want it anyway? The Great Corruption and Drug Games of 2008… yeah.

::::: going back to world domination plans with Scylla :::::

:::: planning a dramatic, painful end to the lives of Mayor Mel and Mike Harris… :::::
Elly

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As I Torontonian, I say fuck it.

So we don’t get a chance to blow multi-billion dollars on a sporting event. Someone will get a chance to blow it elsewhere at another time.

This is not a victory for either side. I would have grinned a beared it no matter who won. The Olympics would not have changed a thing - money is still going to get spent/wasted somewhere on something that someone does not like.

Nothing surprises me anymore.

11

pay 36 million dollars to get a 1.5billion dollar tax infusion by governments to improve the city, creating jobs, increasing spending, improving the economy, hopefully working towards a budget surplus? doesn’t seem like a waste of money to me…

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Of course, Mayberrydan. We all know what a wonderful financial boon the Olympics can be. Especially those of us from Montreal.

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matt_mcl said;

Don’t blame Montreal’s debt on the Olympics. Blame it on corruption and incompetence. Those virtues exist without the Olympics, and will rear their ugly head again.

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That’s true, to a point, but an event like the Olympics will facilitate their appearance. Remind me again, how much money in kickback was spent for previous Toronto bids ?

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I wasn’t talking about the effect the olympics themselves would have on the city of Toronto…I was talking about the effect the effect the 1.5billion (that’s been promised to the waterfront) would have on the city of Toronto - Even without the Olympics.

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Oh, I’m quite sure, Mayberrydan. Particularly with the keyword: even without the Olympics.

If the investment is necessary, it is necessary whether the Olympics come or not. That being the case, one might as well just shitcan the Olympics and put the money that would be wasted bringing in the frivolous spectacle into the needed investment instead.

Since the Honoré-Beaugrand metro line was necessary in 1976, the Montreal government might as well have just built it without spending billions on some ancillary sporting events.

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Oh, I’m quite sure, Mayberrydan. Particularly with the keyword: even without the Olympics.

If the investment is necessary, it is necessary whether the Olympics come or not. That being the case, one might as well just shitcan the Olympics and put the money that would be wasted bringing in the frivolous spectacle into the needed investment instead.

Since the Honoré-Beaugrand metro line was necessary in 1976, the Montreal government might as well have just built it without spending billions on some ancillary sporting events.

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You’re quite right Matt. Uh, not that I know the particulars of Toronto. Any idea why so many cities seem so keen on getting the Olympics?

Marc

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Beats the fuck out of me. Ask Mel Lastman.

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It’s a WAG, but I’d guess its because of prestige or more commonly an urban inferiority complex (<Sally Field> Wow,they love us, they really love us, they’re letting us have the Olympics !</Sally Field>).