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Mr. Luddite

On 7/27/2015 8:30 PM, wrote:
On Mon, 27 Jul 2015 19:28:34 -0400, "Mr. Luddite"
wrote:

On 7/27/2015 6:38 PM, Keyser Söze wrote:
On 7/27/15 6:22 PM, Mr. Luddite wrote:
On 7/27/2015 5:44 PM, Keyser Söze wrote:
On 7/27/15 5:42 PM, True North wrote:
Keyser Söze

"BOSTON -- After a tortuous seven-month public process, the United
States
Olympic Committee on Monday acknowledged that it had failed to win over
the people of Boston to host the 2024 Summer Games and it officially
pulled the plug on its bid to put forth Boston as America's host city."

Now Toronto is starting to make noises about competing to host the
2024 Olympics while patting themselves on the back for the just
completed Panamericana games.
Way back a very vocal minority tried to get the PanAm games for
Halifax.
The Feds only offered 700 million in assistance and the cost estimate
was rising to 2 billion. Thank God saner heads prevailed.

I hope they pass. The games are money-losers. Cities, of course, don't
seem to mind being raped by the owners of professional sports teams into
building stadiums, which are also money-losers for the cities. Let the
billionaire owners of major sports teams pay for the building of their
own damned stadiums.

Good grief, it must be tough for you to live in the USA. I can't recall
anything of our culture, our economics, welfare system or our government
that you like or approve of.

Most of the losses associated with hosting Olympic games is the
infrastructure, stadiums, etc., that are built and used once.
Maybe the summer Olympics should be permanently located in Athens,
Greece, home of the original, ancient games. The Greek economy could
use the boost and the stadiums can be re-used.

Why should cities or states pay for sports infrastructure that is built
and used once, and Olympic games that end up costing the cities more
than they make? And why should cities and states subsidize sports teams
owned by billionaires, especially when our infrastructure is crumbling,
benefits for the poor are being cut, school programs are being shut
down, clinics are being closed, et cetera?

Because the world doesn't revolve around Harry Krause, his interests and
his cynical views of our society.

I agree about the Olympic game venues. Waste of money for a one-time
event. However sports stadiums bring more to the local economy than just
the price of a football or baseball game ticket. If you don't believe
that, consider the times major league teams even think of
moving to a location or state out of the local area. Everything
possible is done to keep them where they are.

A few years back the New England Patriots started making noises about
moving to Connecticut or somewhere due to the archaic and obsolete
stadium in Foxboro. Some of the die hard Patriots fans were beside
themselves with grief.

But, a deal was reached and "Patriot Place" came to be. Don't know if
you have ever been there but it really is fabulous. In addition to the
football stadium (which also hosts pro soccer games, musical concerts
and other events), there are also 1.3 million square feet of adjoining
shops, restaurants, bars and other entertainment venues for the public
to enjoy. The complex employs thousands of locals, a positive influence
on the local economy.

Here's a link to more info about Patriot Place if you are interested:

http://www.boston-discovery-guide.com/patriot-place.html

I doubt these ever actually show any profit at all.

We have an excellent example here in Ft Myers. Your Red Sox sweet
talked our government into building a spring training facility,
promising thousands of new jobs. We built it and when we got a look at
the jobs, they turned out to be hot dog vendors, cleaners and ticket
takers, all part time and all during "season" when we have plenty of
jobs anyway. The big money workers came down on the bus and took most
of their money back to Boston with them when they left.
Several years later they decided that stadium was not nice enough for
them and blackmailed us into building them another one.
Now we have a totally unused stadium they can't figure out what to do
with and a new one that is also bleeding us dry.
The Twins? Yup, they did that to us too.

Greg, you are wrong about Patriot Place. Since opening, it continues to
set records for ticket sales and total revenues. Every Patriot game is a
sell-out. It has been a spectacular success for Kraft, for the town of
Foxboro for the local communities at large in terms of jobs (over 3,000)
and for the sports fans and concert goers.

When the town hired consultant did a study of the proposed plans, he
underestimated by 50 percent the revenues that would generated. He also
way over-estimated the additional law enforcement costs associated with
the overall venue. Foxboro's law enforcement costs have actually decreased.

You can't compare something like Patriot Place to a training camp
in Florida, used for a couple of months by the Red Sox during the
pre-season.