Olympics: Dave Zirin's SI.com article on the Games

[E-Mac]

I know this isn't specifically about hockey, but as a very conflicted Vancouverite I thought it's worth posting. You don't see a ton of issue-based sports journalism these days. Mods, relocate or delete at your discretion.

Beginning of the article:

When I arrived in Vancouver, the first thing I noticed was the frowns.

The International Olympic Committee has leased every sign and billboard in town to broadcast Olympic joy, but they can't purchase people's faces. It's clear that the 2010 Winter Games has made the mood in the bucolic coastal city decidedly overcast. Even the customs police officer checking my passport started grumbling about "$5,000 hockey tickets." Polls released on my first day in Vancouver back up this initial impression. Only 50 percent of residents in British Columbia think the Olympics will be positive and 69 percent said too much money is being spent on the Games...

Link: As Olympics near, people in Vancouver are dreading Games

Click to read more...

 

[DoctorDoak]

In before "it's just a game" or "it's too late now so we might as well enjoy the party" arguments begin and the thread devolves.

 

[Siberian]

It's too bad the recession affected Vancouver. It's a heavy article but I am sure the writer exaggerated.

 

[Jonas1235]

Canadians are conservative by nature. We don't like overspending.

 

[GlenngarryGlencross]

"The original cost estimate was $660 million in public money. It's now at an admitted $6 billion and steadily climbing. An early economic impact statement was that the games could bring in $10 billion. Price Waterhouse Coopers just released their own study showing that the total economic impact will be more like $1 billion. In addition, the Olympic Village came in $100 million over budget and had to be bailed out by the city."

I don't know how accurate any of these numbers are but that is insane in any economy, let alone the current recession. To go from $660 million to over $6 billion in public spending? That is outrageous.

 

[E-Mac]

The numbers are accurate. The best part is VANOC's only on the hook for money spent directly on the Games -- all the infrastructure and public projects, which make up about $5 billion of the total cost, are left to the taxpayers. That's ignoring the social housing issues... Yeah, it's really messy up here.

 

[Kitten Mittons]

Well if the games bring $10bil,then it's all good.

 

[EbencoyE]

and this is why all my friends in chicago were so glad that rio won

 

[Sentinel]

All I can tell you is that my wife and I wanted to come to OG, but simply could not afford to. The total estimated costs would be around $15K.

 

[LannysStach]

this is very bad journalism, and a buncha baloney bluster.

rule #1 for journalists — don't interview other journalists.

Gee! tickets are expensive for Olympic hockey in Canada! No WAY.

I don't even like Conan O'Brien, but his sign-off message was about anti-cynicism.
respect.

many practicing journalists think the more cynical you are, the smarter you are.

It's too bad. But it exists. And it's our job to avoid it.

 

[hototogisu]

I don't know how accurate any of these numbers are but that is insane in any economy, let alone the current recession. To go from $660 million to over $6 billion in public spending? That is outrageous.

Yeah that's pretty astonishing. You figure any project as big as hosting the Olympics is going to go over budget, but by that much? Holy hell.

this is very bad journalism, and a buncha baloney bluster.

rule #1 for journalists — don't interview other journalists.

Gee! tickets are expensive for Olympic hockey in Canada! No WAY.

I don't even like Conan O'Brien, but his sign-off message was about anti-cynicism.
respect.

many practicing journalists think the more cynical you are, the smarter you are.

It's too bad. But it exists. And it's our job to avoid it.

If you're going to call the article out on the basis of poor journalism, you should probably have more to offer than "don't interview other journalists" and "don't be so cynical".

 

[El Diego]

I think every Olympics in recent memory has been under budgeted by about 1000%.

 

[TonyTinglebone]

I know one thing. If I was going to protest during the Olympics I would be very careful how I do it considering they bumped their security budget from $175,000,000 to over $1,000,000,000

 

[Telfo]

The Olympics in Atlanta brought a lot of new building and infrastructure upgrades that are still very useful. i was too young at the time so i have no idea what it cost, but overall i have to think it was successful. aside from the whole bomb thing.....

 

[charms]

The original cost estimate was $660 million in public money. It's now at an admitted $6 billion and steadily climbing.

I'd like to see how they arrived at the original estimate.

 

[MeHateHe]

The numbers are wrong. The $600 million figure being thrown around was the BC Liar party said would be the provincial input. (They didn't include the hundreds of millions in upgrades to infrastructure such as the Sea-to-Sky Highway or to the transit lines or a whole host of other things. The true provincial cost is around $2.5 billion.) The overall cost of the games was to be shared by the city, the province and the federal government. I don't recall what the original estimate was, but it was in the billions.

No question the games have gone considerably over budget. The original security estimate was $175 million; it is now close to $1 billion. But it's simply wrong to say the original estimate was $600 million.

As to the rest of the article, a big part of the reason for cynicism is the fact that between the economy and the provincial government's appalling mismanagement, every other facet of life is being cut back. Prince George, a city of 70,000, is about to lose 14 schools because of cost-cutting, and forestry, a major industry everywhere except downtown Vancouver, has been in the crapper for three years. We have the worst poverty rates in Canada and homelessness numbers that are frankly embarrassing.

So, speaking as a British Columbia taxpayer, it's a bitter pill to swallow thinking about spending $2.5 billion on a party I can only afford to watch on TV while all this other stuff is happening. That's why there's so much negativity about the Olympics in BC.

Don't get me wrong. I supported the games when they were announced for Vancouver and I will probably watch about 40 hours of coverage. I'm just expressing what many people are saying.

 

[Siberian]

I was searching to see how much the tickets are and found this. I hope the girl finds the money to go!

http://calgary.kijiji.ca/c-communit...nteer-make-it-to-the-games-W0QQAdIdZ182551923

 

[bruinsfan46]

this is very bad journalism, and a buncha baloney bluster.

rule #1 for journalists — don't interview other journalists.

Gee! tickets are expensive for Olympic hockey in Canada! No WAY.

I don't even like Conan O'Brien, but his sign-off message was about anti-cynicism.
respect.

many practicing journalists think the more cynical you are, the smarter you are.

It's too bad. But it exists. And it's our job to avoid it.

Dave Zirin is the most cynical person in sports media today that I know of. Everything he writes or says in interviews (he used to do some on the The Score) has a depressing tone to it. It should come as no surprise he writes an article about how bad the games are and it sounds like he might even have some facts wrong.

 

[time]

Totally flawed journalism -- you walk around Vancouver in January (when the place is anything but "bucolic") in the middle of recession and ask them questions about the cost of tickets and underbudgetting. Wow, what a surprise, people give you grouchy answers.

 

[Heat McManus]

I would imagine it's something like this:

Olympics, fun to watch, fun to go to, tough to host.

Between cost and discomfort, I don't want my area to host the Olympics. Actually I would abhor the Games coming to NYC. Verizon repairs shut down a whole block for a week, I can't imagine what those games would do.

 

[DoctorDoak]

Totally flawed journalism -- you walk around Vancouver in January (when the place is anything but "bucolic") in the middle of recession and ask them questions about the cost of tickets and underbudgetting. Wow, what a surprise, people give you grouchy answers.

I still don't understand this "flaw" everyone's talking about. It's certainly bringing a particular bias, but it's a drop in the bucket compared to the mindless cheerleading the Olympics gets in just about every other major sports media outlet. How is the brainless optimism of http://www.ctvolympics.ca/ any better, by this bizarre standard of "journalism" you're setting?

Dave Zirin is the most cynical person in sports media today that I know of. Everything he writes or says in interviews (he used to do some on the The Score) has a depressing tone to it. It should come as no surprise he writes an article about how bad the games are and it sounds like he might even have some facts wrong.

Again, why, bruinsfan46, should every story about the Olympics be positive? Pardon me for being interested in multiple perspectives, even if they're unpleasant. What is a fact is that the Olympics are massively over-budget, and nearly totally inaccessible (not to mention inconvenient) for the lion's share of Lower Mainland-Sunshine Coast residents. Maybe the rest of the world ought to be aware of these facts.

Incidentally, Vancouver has been so bucolic this January that they had to close Cypress early and move snow in. There's still talk that some events will have to be moved.

 

[Andy Dufresne]

All of the comments about the downtown eastside are lacking any context whatsover:


"But these aren't just p.r. gaffs to Vancouver residents, particularly on the eastside of the city where homelessness has spiked. Carol Martin who works in the downtown eastside of Vancouver, the most economically impoverished area in all of Canada, made this clear: "The Bid Committee promised that not a single person would be displaced due to the Games, but there are now 3,000 homeless people sleeping on Vancouver's streets and these people are facing increased police harassment as they try to clean the streets in the lead up to the Games."
I strolled the backstreets of the downtown eastside and police congregate on every corner, trying to hem in a palpable frustration and anger"


I lived and worked in East Van in the early 90's- my girlfriend at the time was a social worker in the area. "palpable frustration and anger" is/has been a daily way of life there for as long as anyone I know can remember. That goes back to early/mid 60's.

3,000 homeless?- How many were there before? Does anyone remember the last international event that led to low-income people being evicted so by-the-day rentals could make landowners more money? It was Expo 86', and now, nobody even remembers it happened.

Very few people in Vancouver, or B.C., give a **** about the plight of people on Hastings Street. That's a fact. It's been a 3rd world country for a long time- the Olympics are irrelevant. People *****ing about their taxes wouldn't have put a dime in voluntarily to help the people in that area- they never have before.

If Chicago got the Summer games can you imagine what this guy would have written about the South Side? It's either a story worth writing, or it's not, the Olympics have nothing to do with it.

 

[TonyTinglebone]

I still don't understand this "flaw" everyone's talking about. It's certainly bringing a particular bias, but it's a drop in the bucket compared to the mindless cheerleading the Olympics gets in just about every other major sports media outlet. How is the brainless optimism of http://www.ctvolympics.ca/ any better, by this bizarre standard of "journalism" you're setting?


Again, why, bruinsfan46, should every story about the Olympics be positive? Pardon me for being interested in multiple perspectives, even if they're unpleasant. What is a fact is that the Olympics are massively over-budget, and nearly totally inaccessible (not to mention inconvenient) for the lion's share of Lower Mainland-Sunshine Coast residents. Maybe the rest of the world ought to be aware of these facts.

Incidentally, Vancouver has been so bucolic this January that they had to close Cypress early and move snow in. There's still talk that some events will have to be moved.

I doubt the company that has the broadcasting rights to the Olympics is going to portray them in a bad light.

 

[E-Mac]

I doubt the company that has the broadcasting rights to the Olympics is going to portray them in a bad light.

I don't think he's saying it's surprising, just that the "rah-rah" crowd's already very well represented.

 

[RobertKron]

It's not like it's unique to the downtown eastside, though. I work at a bike shop, where people are bringing in tons of repair work as they prepare to follow the city's recommendation of riding bikes or finding other ways to get around during the Olympics, and the sentiment about them is almost universally negative. These are people who own big SUVs, multi-thousand dollar bikes that they haven't bothered to use in a year, near million dollar condos, and oftentimes have tickets to some of the events.