If you have a look at this page, you’ll see that Quebec took decades to pay off its 1976 Olympics stadium. They had a special (hated) tobacco tax.

It costs $100K just to write a letter of intent. Then it’s another $500K to actually submit a bid. Then the host city is on the hook for very large amounts of construction debt, mostly building huge facilities which we don’t currently have, for the simple reason that there aren’t enough fans to justify them.

I could have tagged this as a ‘person of interest’ blog entry in that our waffling mayor, John Tory, has yet to decide which ‘decision’ will be the easiest to live with. I call this ‘bleadership’ or, perhaps, ‘bleatership’. This is the same mayor who will not re-open the Scarborough  subway / light rail issue despite many proofs that the light rail is actually better and serves more people.

Cynically, the subway goes through a lighter-density, single-family homes area, one of wealthier citizens who have time and resources to lobby and attend fundraising events.

The Olympics will benefit construction companies, hotels, and restaurants.

Given the short time frame (mid-September?) I’ll bet Tory hedges his bets and spends the $100K on our behalf.

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