Bread and circuses

With Halifax deciding to pull out of the bidding for the 2014 Commonwealth Games and it being way too late for my hometown of Hamilton to even consider resubmitting its petition, I have a few thoughts.

It seems every time there's a big sporting event that draws international attention -- whether it's the Olympics, the Commonwealth Games or the World Cup of Soccer -- there seems to be a disconnect between what the granting body terms as "legacy" and what ordinary people see as such. Take the 1976 Olympics in Montréal; which were plagued by construction strikes and massive cost overruns -- which were only finally paid off last year. Or consider that Mexico only had four years to prepare for the 1986 World Cup when the original winner -- Colombia -- suddenly decided they couldn't afford to host it; then just months before the tournament an earthquake damaged quite a few of the soccer venues.

Legacy usually means how it will promote sports both domestically and internationally in the long run, well after the tournament ends. Being stiffed with over sized facilities that were designed to be used only a few times isn't exactly a nice idea of legacy, though. And the athletes villages which are supposed to go to low-income housing usually wind up being sold off as luxury condos.

So it's little wonder why people were complaining about Halifax's bid costs exploding through the roof -- from about $700 million to $1.7 billion. I'd like to meet the bean counter who came up with this one.

I'm not against large scale events of this nature. I am against dubious accounting. It should go through a due diligence process and estimate costs at the time of the actual games seven years down the road -- not current dollars. It should also account for worst case scenarios.

Otherwise, we're getting into a bread and circus scenario -- money being misspent at worst, shoddy organization at best, while those who should benefit the most do not ... and that's just plain wrong.

An aside: Why is it that the Commonwealth Games Society for Canada separate from the Canadian Olympic Committee? Most other Commonwealth nations get by just fine with their Olympic Committees.

Vote for this post at Progressive Bloggers.