Fix the roads

Dont fix the roads - pothole racing could become a new sporting event. Athletes would come to town before the games to train at our unique sites. Besides; what would you rather have - potholes or an art center?

If the winter is cold enough, there will be few potholes in sight since they will be sealed with ice and snow.

wow...lets cut policing and spend $250,000 just to bid on the games.

way to go ``One term Dan``!

" It is estimated the games will bring 4,000 athletes trainers and coaches, 120 thousand spectators, and a t.v. audience of 3 million."

Wondering where anyone thinks 120,000 spectators are coming from. I phoned several relatives and friends who don't live in Prince George and asked if they would be interested in coming here for the Games and all of them said NO.

I knew they would approve this. This is a great opportunity that allows council members to strutt their stuff in front of cameras and the media. I think the people who live in PG should have the opportunity to vote on this. Amazing how they had to raise the taxes on everything last year and now again this year yet they still want to spend! Guess it is true that when you are spending someone elses money it is easy to be wastefull.

I for one fully support a bid on the Games. It will be the best thing EVER to happen to PG.

Go PG!

I support the bid, and I hope we get the winning proposal. 4,000 athletes, judges,coaches, families, coming to Prince George, spending their money in our city. It seems like a no brainer to me.

Always take advantage of the chance to get money coming into our city. It will always be a good thing, More money in our hands, means more employment and revenues for companies, meaning more money floating around town. This means we have more tax money for fixing the potholes.

So many people can not see potential, and only concentrate on the negatives. This must be a tiresome life to live.

If we can get 9 million dollars to spend for capital expenditures [only 3 million of the cities money] plus the influx of people for the duratuion of the games than it does sound like a good deal. But what can you build for 9 million that would be of a lasting benefit to the city. the cost of a performing art center is estamated at 50 million. What would a speed skating oval cost and a ski jumping area and all the other things that would be needed to put on the games. Could be that 9 million would be just a drop in the bucket.

Sentiment initially ran high for hosting the Olympics, but as people are being taxed to death to pay for it and police and build it, many proponents have now become detractors. Poor comparison, maybe, apples and oranges one might say, but I really wonder when the first flush of dollars disappears, how much will we be paying in the long run? Doom and gloomer?
Or just a realist? I may not be correct in painting this with the same brush but, it gets harder and harder to be enthusiastic when one pays attention to the details and runs the, what if scenarios by with a bit of rational thinking and good old logic. Someone else might see the silver lining and come up with a different scenario by running the numbers and all the power to them. I just have trouble seeing it. Yeah it sucks to be me.

Below is a link to an article on how the residents of Whistler are feeling about the Olympics now that the crows are starting to come home to roost. You can cut and paste this into your browser to open it.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/british-columbia/whistlers-olympic-wipeout/article1215010/

A quarter of a million dollars just to bid? I sure would like to see those receipts!

Is this one of those events where every province gets its turn, and 2015 is BC's turn, or are we bidding against the whole country? Does anyone know?

It's BC's turn in 2015...that's official.

The inside scoop has at least four other comunities considering a bid but PG is only the second to commit $$$ (Kelowna being the other).

My money would be on a Peace Country bid, a Kootenay area bid and an Vancouver Island bid as well.

Thanks for the info guys. Seems like the odds are good enough to risk the bidding costs. At least we're not up against 20 other cities from across Canada.

The 2007 Canada Winter Games were held in Whitehorse Yukon. How many of you posters went to Whitehorse to support them. My guess is none.

Capital costs for the Whitehorse games was around $80 Million. Their numbers for the number of atheletes, coaches, and VIPs attending were almost bang on, however their numbers for visitors and ticket sales were off by 50%. Expect the same kind of BS for Prince George.

Not to many people will be breaking thier ass to get here in the middle of the winter to watch a bunch of skating, skiing, etc; etc;. To get 120,000 people to come would be a bloody miracle.

The 2011 Canada Winter games will be held in Halifax. Now many of you posters are going to go to Halifax to support them??? My guess is none.

Prince George people have this inane idea that other people will do things, that they themselves wont do. Its amazing.

We all expect someone else to go to the Cougers games to support them. We expect someone else to go to the Charles Jago Northern Sports Centre to support them. Same thing for the Ice Oval.

How many people in this burg supported the World Challenge Baseball Tournament held here last week. Every article I read on the Tournaments with one exception made no mention of fan attendence. Why???? My guess is because they got a poor turn out at the games. In the few instances that I drove by, I noticed that the stands were almost empty, and there certainly was no need for the extra bleachers.

We might get the Canada Winter Games, however if we are really lucky, we wont.

The key word is "capital costs". As in, legacies that will be around for years and years. If we get legitimate capital assets for the city, subsidized by attendees from other province (regardless of how few) and funding from the province and feds, why would we turn it down? Is this not better than $80 million in capital assets that we pay for ourselves?

Some decent legacies that I can think of from Canada Games hosts that I have been to include Hillside Stadium in Kamloops, Canada Games Pool in Thunder Bay, and the Canada Games Sportsplex in Brandon.

Basically the Canada Games are just a way for the federal government to go around subsidizing capital projects in various cities. Why wouldn't we want this? It's not as if we rejected it the money would be saved... it would just be spent in another city. You guys really want Kelowna getting more federal/provincial money than us?

And to those who say fix the roads... the Games legacies are things that would usually be built eventually, but they are built sooner, subsidized with outside dollars. Guess what? That leaves more money for the city to spend on things like roads!

Wolfie. The high cost for Capital Expenditures for Whitehorse was because they didnt have anything to start with. This is not so for Prince George. With the possible exception of speed skating, we have all the facilities to host these games. Thats why the article says that the City, Province, and Feds will kick in $3 Million each for a total of $9 Million for ****Improvements to facilities****

This leaves the 4000 atheletes (exaggerated number) and 120,000 visitors (exaggeraged number) to make the games a success. Restaurants, Hotels, and local stores will make the money, however there is a downside.

Its highly unlikely that the City will factor in all the people who normally come to Prince George for a week end of shopping, entertainment, gambling, etc;, who will not be able to do so, because there will be no accommodation available for them while the games are here. This or course will be a direct loss of revenue to Restaurants, Hotels, and stores, so at the end of the day, the money to be made will be a lot less than what the City is forcasting.

It all depends on who does the numbers, and how they do them. $90 Million dollars into the local economy is Voodoo economics, and will never happen.

So why did you quote $80 million as if it was relevant then?

Maybe $90 million is "Voodoo economics" but if the cost is only $3 million to the city, and the feds and province would be spending the money elsewhere anyway if not here, what's the problem? Are you saying that projections of $90 million in benefits would be less than $3 million? Even if it does, by some bizarre occurrence, become absolutely $0, we still get $9 million worth of capital improvements for $3 million.

I would hope, however, that if they are projecting $90 million, that at least $3 million is attainable...

Look around, you can barely pave one street through town for $9 M.