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68 Comments
- tavallai, on 01/03/2009, -5/+53Come for the pollution.... stay for the melamine poisoning.
- Daxx22, on 01/02/2009, -4/+42That's the problem of wanting to put on a spectacle for the World. Once it's over, it's not worth much else.
- AmazingA, on 01/02/2009, -8/+43Maybe because the main thing we remember about the city was all the pollution? Hmm, do I want to spend my vacation breathing smog, or would i rather go some place nice like Eastern Europe. Not a tough choice. Until I read this article I didn't even realize many factories were still shut down in Beijing.
- lazybuoy, on 01/03/2009, -2/+24The name "Bird's Nest" may turn out to be truly prophetic.
- nategoyer, on 01/03/2009, -1/+22While I'm not sure about Beijing and Athens, I can speak for Sydney as I live here....there really wasn't a big void after the 2000 games...sure it becomes a bit lonely for a few weeks but Sydney has been able to regularly reuse the facilities built for the 2000 games for many many other things, including weekly sports and concerts. The transportation lines constructed for the Olympics is still used by thousands of travelers each day to and from the various suburbs that were developed around that time, and because of the planning of the city to accommodate Olympic tourists, we can now walk from a major event directly onto a train line and be home within 30 minutes.
When constructing for the Olympics, I think Sydney did it very well; they used it as an excuse to improve the infrastructure not only for the temporary glut of tourists, but also to help the citizens of the city. In the years following the Olympics, Sydney property values rose dramatically as a sign that people had a great quality of life, in part attributed by the improvements to the city. I also believe part of the trick is to have a post-Olympic plan; Sydney had the Rugby World Cup in 2002 and a few other major events that could use a city with Olympic-style facilities. - virtualcorey, on 01/03/2009, -1/+18The winter Olympics don't have the same curse. Most of the cities that host them already have the venues needed, and if not they can build them and find plenty of uses for them after the show. Just look at Salt Lake for example, the Olympic venues are used in the summer and winter and continue to attract tourists.
- pdileepa, on 01/03/2009, -6/+19More than anything, it's the obsession to put on the best show ever. What a huge waste of money and other resources. Time to rethink and revert back to what it should be -- just sports.
- inactive, on 01/03/2009, -2/+15Are you kidding? I was just there for the holidays, not sure why those two are standing alone, it took forever just to get inside the bird's nest and the water cube. Funny what journalists would do just to get a story off the ground. Also had a hard time booking ANY hotel rooms there during the holidays, not sure about now, but it definitely didn't feel empty at all especially in the touristy areas.
- sinaura, on 01/03/2009, -3/+13You're missing the point about Olympic cities; once the festivities are gone there's really no other use for the structures built specifically for those Olympics. The pollution, or your desired vacation spots for that matter, have nothing to do with the withdraw Olympic cities feel afterward.
- kazamx, on 01/03/2009, -0/+10The city of Manchester in the UK held the Commonwealth Games in 2002. They were billed as the sustainable games.
The stadium was sold to Manchester City football club as their new home ground. the velodrome became the new home to the British cycling team. The MEN Arena was used as the venue for the basketball, netball, badminton etc. The athletes lived in a students halls of residence (completely refurbished (lucky students))
Pretty much nothing was left useless at the end of the games. Everything was found a use even before they started building. In fact even before they started the bidding process they were already finding uses for the new structures and trying to incorporate all the existing structures.
London 2012 is trying to do the same thing. Sure the games will be smaller than Sydney or Beijing, but their legacy on London should be a better city with better facilities, not a lot of useless buildings. - Pinkertinkle, on 01/03/2009, -1/+11Pretty sure a lotta cities are suffering in this economic climate.
- oSallyo, on 01/03/2009, -0/+8I have to agree with Nategoyer.
The whole of Olympic Park around the main stadium in Sydney is in use regularly, there are constant concerts in the venues, the Big Day Out every year, the Royal Easter Show, Rugby League, Rugby, even AFL are played in Olympic Park.
There is now also a yearly V8 Supercar race around Olympic Park.
As well as all that, the area is used by many locals for picnics, bike riding, walking etc.
The article is not true in respect of Sydney. - SuperCujo, on 01/03/2009, -0/+7I would love to go there. More history and culture in one or two cities than in the entire US.
- DeadSkinMask, on 01/03/2009, -0/+7Great point.
I live in Vancouver and look forward to the 2010 games in my backyard.
For the most part, Vancouver/Whister was already set up (venue wise) for the upcomming games. As far as I know, the only major Venue projects are the renovation of B.C Place, Richmond's Speed Skating oval, and the new arena at UBC.
All of these additions will be used for years to come. - Jrr6415sun, on 01/03/2009, -1/+7I went to the olympic stadium last month and there were still thousands of people a day paying $10 each to walk through.
They are also turning the water cube into a water park.. so yes the structures do still have some use after the Olympics. - inactive, on 01/03/2009, -3/+9Sydney is still banging
- Wrangler76, on 01/03/2009, -1/+7"Much of the pain is due to the worldwide financial crisis "
The author could've ended the article right there, but he had to try to make it seem like it was the olympics' fault. - monkeyrun, on 01/03/2009, -1/+6Just look at the global economy.
Apparently the whole world is suffering from "Olympic curse". - BassMastr, on 01/03/2009, -5/+10You'd figure with 1.somethingorother billion people they could find a way to use them...
- BossKey, on 01/03/2009, -0/+5Even as "just sports," the Olympics contribute to overcommitment. You can't do a partial Olympics. You either commit all the way, or not at all. So Beijing had to build venues for crowds they would only see for 2 weeks, and for sports they would never play again. Any Olympic city must deal with that. In Athens it's even worse...much worse, after only four years.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldnews/article- ...
You'd either have to split it across cities or simply scale down the Games.
Maybe a solution is to keep it in one city. Some have said it should be left in Athens. - rolf, on 01/03/2009, -10/+14In a way, I think it's very environmentally irresponsible to build these huge, essentially one-time use stadiums and supporting infrastructure when there are so many past Olympic venues around. Future Olympic Committees, when picking a site, should either consider a place they've already been or at least, a place that was building up anyway and could have used the stadium for itself. One of the reasons they need such huge places is that they insist in having all the events so close together (space and date wise) and the Olympic Village, etc.
Although, I'm not surprised that China eagerly built this. Over there, they built a mall many times bigger than the mall of America, and it stands empty of vendors:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_China_Mall - scamper22, on 01/03/2009, -0/+4me?
- alwilson, on 01/03/2009, -3/+7Don't feel sorry for China. They'll make all the money back from the interest they charge to the USA for government loan bailouts and financing the occupation in Iraq. I just worry about the day all those loans come due and we can't pay them. Do you think this would be a good time to learn some Chinese?
- kthx, on 01/03/2009, -0/+4What The Hell Is With Your Writing Style?
- beasty_dave_Mk2, on 01/03/2009, -2/+5Vancouver 2010, might as well come enjoy our city cause when ya leave, we're stuck with the same bureaucratic ***** of useless *****.
I love paying 41% of my income on taxes! Oh Canada! - FreddieD, on 01/03/2009, -1/+4Is it normal UK slang to write things like "seven percent" as "seven per cent", or was this article riddled with grammar issues?
- marko_tomas13, on 01/03/2009, -0/+3Not really.
The winter olympics are a whole different set of circumstances when it comes to "Olympic withdrawl" or whatever you want to name it.
Many facilities needed for a winter olympics (ie. a mountain) are already present and don't require as huge of an investment to prepare as the summer facilities do. Some of the summer facilities are so specific to one activity that they have no use whatsoever afterwards.
For an example see the Montreal olympics and the velodrome that was turned into reptile zoo/museum of sorts. - inactive, on 01/03/2009, -2/+5what's wrong with white elephants
- rmones, on 01/04/2009, -0/+2I find it hard to believe that China is unable to attract people to events in the "birds nest". Isn't Beijing overpopulated? Filling Olympic-class stadium seats in an overpopulated city should be a piece of cake. The only problem I can think of is if they are charging too much for the tickets - which would be a blatant consumer economics mistake. Besides, the city must not have to pay much for a maintenance staff, labor in China is cheap.
If they are having trouble filling that stadium then frankly, they must not be trying hard enough. - lanismycousin, on 01/03/2009, -4/+6sad that they dont find some other alternative use for these places ... emergency shelters ? venues for music ? communist parade areas ? =)
- barc0001, on 01/03/2009, -0/+2Not quite. Montreal finished paying in 2006. And Calgary made out like bandits on the 88 games. So Canada's underpants can have the summer games, we'll take the winter games.
- DeadSkinMask, on 01/03/2009, -0/+2*Whistler
- manjar, on 01/03/2009, -5/+7Some Puffed Up Comment That Shows That I'm Over The Olympics, And That I Could Run China Better Than The Chinese Government Does.
- Atario, on 01/03/2009, -4/+6Go away, right-wing troll. And don't forget not to use those communist perversions of American greatness: the freeway system, the Post Office, public schools, public libraries, fire departments, police departments, et cetera...
- beasty_dave_Mk2, on 01/03/2009, -0/+2True it's not as extravagant as summer games and I know the money has put alot bread on many tables here in the lower mainland... Yet it's alot scratch to drop when the roads on my street have huge potholes and 3 elementary and middle schools in my area have shut down due to lack of funding.
"....As of 2004, the cost of the 2010 Winter Olympics is estimated to be in the range of C$1.4 billion. C$620 million is the approximate cost to construct venues throughout Vancouver and Whistler, C$200 million is expected to be spent for security, which the RCMP is expected to be in charge of, and $600 million will be used to refit the Sea-to-Sky Highway to accommodate increased traffic between Vancouver and Whistler, although this highway upgrade has been over due for more than a decade and will still not meet the basic needs of the corridor. Vancouver and Whistler will maintain an operating budget of about C$2 billion from the provincial and federal governments...."
http://www.whiterockonline.com/2010construction.ht ... - steel66, on 01/03/2009, -2/+4"One of the reasons why the Olympics should just be given to the US nearly all the time"
Because....America *****-Yeah- coming again to save the *****' day.
I am sure that America would put on a modest opening ceremony .../s, otherwise, I guess the Chinese could lend the USA the money to put on a kick ass show too. - LoadStar, on 01/03/2009, -0/+2That's what I like about the Chicago 2016 plan. The vast majority of the venues would be existing, pre-standing venues that have already been in use for major competitions all along. (Allstate Center, UIC Pavilion, United Center, McCormick Place, etc.)
In the few areas where they do need to build a large new facility, like the main Olympic Stadium, it's planned to be built as a mostly temporary facility, with 90% of it being taken down after the games and the remaining 10% being reused as an amphitheater in the park for concerts and such. - SuperCujo, on 01/03/2009, -0/+2*Edit
- inactive, on 01/03/2009, -0/+2nihaa
- grumpyrain, on 01/03/2009, -0/+2Yes and no. I can see what they are saying. No doubt they did well converting the old swamp to extremely pricey real-estate for the athletes village just in time for the property bubble a few years back ;)
The regular NRL games don't particularly work because they can't draw a crowd that makes the stadium look like anyone is there, but certainly the Origin and Finals both work in that stadium. It serves really well for the Easter show; being really easy to get to on public transport compared to Moore Park. The Superdome (Acer or whoever has the naming rights these days) are again much easier to get to than the old entertainment centre.
I do however really miss the reliability of city-rail during the Olympics. I don't know what they did during the games, but if only they would do that every day. /sigh - ShrimpCrackers, on 01/03/2009, -0/+2They brought our debts... not loaned us money. We are not expected to pay those back.
Also China is in the same boat, theyve got a very high poverty rate and their banks are in trouble. - gemlogger, on 01/04/2009, -0/+1'per' and 'cent' are two different Latin words. It has become common in the Americas to combine them as one word. That's all.
- jdelgado8, on 01/03/2009, -1/+2Take note Chicago residents. Don't listen to Mayor Daley and his henchmen about the virtues of hosting the games in 2016. This article proves the waste of money and resources when the city has a budget shortfall, schools are crumbling, crime is higher per capita than most metro cities, etc...
- lithiumtaoist, on 01/03/2009, -0/+1It's good to see that they are keeping to their new policies of less pollution. I honestly didn't expect it of China.
- holmcross, on 01/03/2009, -1/+2They have no faith in medicine.
- inactive, on 01/03/2009, -2/+3baku
- Barackalypse, on 01/04/2009, -1/+1Odd that you chose to omit all the really expensive programs like Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, and unemployment insurance, all of which I would happily opt out of as I have no use for them.
As far as the rest, I never went to a public school, nor would I send my children to them, although they're responsible for roughly $1600 a year on my property taxes. I have no use for the fire department, by the time they would arrive everything in my home would be smoke damaged anyway and their water woud ruin all my electronics, so I'd much rather the house burn to the ground for a complete insurance write off. The one time I actually needed the police they couldn't even be bothered to fingerprint the screwdriver the guy trying to break into my car dropped when I chased him away. Also, they represent more of a threat to my rights than they represent a protection of them, so I'm quite fine with them going away and me being allowed to defend myself as I see fit. The post office is almost entirely funded by the postage I have to pay to use it and I don't need the library because I have the Internet. Roads are nice, I'm happy to pay for those. - darkmotion, on 01/03/2009, -3/+3That wasn't the Whispy Olympic Spirit floating over Beijing. It was their freaking mess of a smog.
- Skishy101, on 01/03/2009, -4/+4All that money spent for it to just end up as a cheesy photo op *tsk tsk*
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