A Stitch in Haste

As people prepare to ignore the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turino, Italy, the Olympicrats at another future venue for the Great Global Boondoggle have encountered something that cannot be so easily ignored:

The committee responsible for organizing the [2010] Vancouver Olympics announced Friday that its venue construction costs have risen by 23 per cent to an estimated $580 million from $470 million. To cover the $110-million cost jump, the Vancouver Olympic Committee ... has asked the provincial and federal governments for an extra $55 million each.

As we saw last year with Mayor Bloomberg's idiot attempt to bring the 2012 Olympics to New York City, the selection process is a grueling, exhaustive bidding process that candidate cities spend months or years, not to mention vast sums of money, researching and preparing.

And they still miss the mark by 23%? The Canadian Olympicrats have barely broken ground on a event that is four years away and they're already 23% over budget and in need of a nine-digit taxpayer bailout? Disgraceful. And, incidentally, unheard of (and not tolerated) in the private sector.

Any politician who argues that bringing the Olympics to their location is an economic boon rather than a wasteful vanity project is a liar.

New York City was mercifully spared the "honor" of hosting the 2012 Olympics. Let's hope that we are similarly insulted in 2016 and forever more.

More thoughts from ElectEcon.