Olympic Fever

I cannot remember when I have spent so much time in front of the TV. I only watch hockey and Survivor, as a rule, but lately I have been spending too much time with the Winter Olympics. Apart from the athletic competitions, there have been some interesting aspects to these games. Take the above photo for example. How many millions of photographs have been taken through this chin link fence? What a sad comment about our modern society that we build an icon such as this and shield it from the very people who are paying for it. No doubt, without the fence, it would have been vandalized by now. But why not build it on a pedestal with unscalable walls. Or put it out on a mini island with a moat around it. Or dedicate some of the $ Billion in security funding to protecting this cauldron? And how did that person get on the other side of that fence? Privilege or stealth?

There is much talk about the cost of the games. By most standards, it has already been deemed a huge success. The figure of $8 Billion has been bandied about, but that would include the cost of most of the infrastructure that will remain long after the Olympians go home. The actual cost of putting on the games apart from infrastructure is said to be less than $2 Billion although that is difficult to believe when the security bill alone is half of that. But, if one is to extend that $8 Billion into the future as an ongoing debt, then it is only fair to incorporate into the numbers all the future revenues that will be drawn from the infrastructure. Only time will tell if the books will be balanced in that regard.

The legacy of the games are many faceted. We will have use of an up-graded Sea to Sky Highway, we have a new Trade and Convention Centre, we have huge Sky Train up-grades, newly developed Real Estate at the Olympic Village, and probably most important, we have the goodwill and amazing advertising of our city and our province as images were broadcast around the world every day for two weeks. One of the biggest and most unexpected bonuses has been the sense of pride, unity, and patriotism that risen up during these games. You cannot put a price on that but it will have long term positive spin offs.

I suppose I sense these games are a bit of historical turning point for our province, much like what Expo '86 did for us almost 25 years ago. I guess that is why I am watching so much TV.