Demise of an Olympic Stadium

[John Picard]

http://www.yahoo.com/s/1023565

And here everyone is afraid of China taking over the world. They're shedding jobs as bad as we are and can't even take care of their own property.

 

[Marc]

http://www.yahoo.com/s/1023565

And here everyone is afraid of China taking over the world. They're shedding jobs as bad as we are and can't even take care of their own property.

I think you'll find that the was the plan all along - the same for the the Water Cube and other Olympic facilities. It was mentioned either during the Olympic coverage or in a Nat Geo special what the plans were post Beijing Games for many of the venues some of which would be demolished.

They a frequently built to a design and scale that means they have little use after the event and seldom survive in their Olympic form.

Stadium Australia built of the 2000 Games in Sydney had seating capacity removed for example from 110,000 down to 83,000 - it was just too big and generally would never be filled to capacity (and the only time that happens is if there's a rugby league final there) and while it does get used it's not used every week of the year.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stadium_Australia

 

[B.J.]

Atlanta tore down half of its Olympic stadium, and reformatted the remaining structure into a baseball stadium. But like Sydney's stadium, that too was the plan all along.

 

[TheMasterOfOrion]

JPicard I'm no fan of communism but you offer a twit solution for Chinese, selling sections off to private sectors and turning Chinese stadiums into a venue for mass consumption and venue for shopping and private business is about the best thing China could do with these big fat stadiums.

The Chinese are doing exactly the right thing!

A worse solution is to follow what Western society is doing lately ie Greece and Japan did with their stadiums - the Greek and Japanese fiascos opted for socialist style 'Protectioism' after the 2002 WorldCup and 2004 Summer Olympics. The Western example for stadiums have opted to become money holes, Tokyo and Athens becoming more socialist than the reds. Tokyo and Athens draining away tax payer money, some stadiums have become big government white elephants looking derelict and dilapidated and nothing like their world cup show pieces.

Mitt Romney would be doing the exactly same thing as China and doing exactly the right thing
if it ain't making money you should either 1 knock it or 2 turn it into an entertainment complex - NO MORE BAILOUTS!

China's economy is becoming more free while we obsess to become more socialist - go figure!

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

http://www.yahoo.com/s/1023565

And here everyone is afraid of China taking over the world. They're shedding jobs as bad as we are and can't even take care of their own property.

I think you'll find that the was the plan all along

I thought the original plan was for the Chinese national soccer team to use the stadium. According to that article, the team backed out of the deal.

 

[Canadave]

A worse solution is to follow what Western society is doing lately ie Greece and Japan did with their stadiums - the Greek and Japanese fiascos opted for socialist style 'Protectioism' after the 2002 WorldCup and 2004 Summer Olympics. The Western example for stadiums have opted to become money holes, Tokyo and Athens becoming more socialist than the reds. Tokyo and Athens draining away tax payer money, some stadiums have become big government white elephants looking derelict and dilapidated and nothing like their world cup show pieces.

Yeah, Montreal's Olympic Stadium is known as The Big Owe for a reason...

 

[the_wildcard]

^^^^ I thought that was the Expos baseball team, lol.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

^^^^ I thought that was the Expos baseball team, lol.

Not really sure what you're getting at here; the Expos are now the Washington Nationals, and their new park is hardly dilapidated (it was only just completed last year). And I believe it's fully paid for - without taxpayer funds.

 

[Canadave]

^^^^ I thought that was the Expos baseball team, lol.

Nope, the stadium earned the nickname Big Owe because it ended up being a huge waste of taxpayer funds. In fact, by the time it was fully paid off, the Expos had already moved to Washington. See here.

 

[Marc]

^^^^ I thought that was the Expos baseball team, lol.

Nope, the stadium earned the nickname Big Owe because it ended up being a huge waste of taxpayer funds. In fact, by the time it was fully paid off, the Expos had already moved to Washington. See here.

I'm sure some people will have some fond memories of the Montreal stand - even if they are just Emerson, Lake & Palmer fans

 

[TheMasterOfOrion]

China is doing things different to Wall St, they have major scandals but the outcome is very different the dudes behind the PetFood thing were shoot in the head, they had a quick court case and China stuck them in front of a firing squad and then charged the families for the bullets. The corrupt Chinese are not being given bonuses like the United States, too many private bankers are in control of the Fed. To cope with the economic downturn the Chinese government have given more tax cuts and has launched a 3.9 Trillion economic stimulus package to get people back to work. That is a much better idea in by book than pay 700 Billion as a reward to the Wall St crime syndicate, Obama's stimulus is too small to get everyone back to work, he should tripple its size and pass something as big as the Chinese.

 

[Dude]

^^^^ I thought that was the Expos baseball team, lol.

Not really sure what you're getting at here; the Expos are now the Washington Nationals, and their new park is hardly dilapidated (it was only just completed last year). And I believe it's fully paid for - without taxpayer funds.

DC taxpayers dropped some $600 million on the Nationals new stadium.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

^^^^ I thought that was the Expos baseball team, lol.

Not really sure what you're getting at here; the Expos are now the Washington Nationals, and their new park is hardly dilapidated (it was only just completed last year). And I believe it's fully paid for - without taxpayer funds.

DC taxpayers dropped some $600 million on the Nationals new stadium.

I'm only going by what I read here. Specifically:

Financing for the stadium was expected to be provided by a banking syndicate led by Deutsche Bank. However, finalization of the financing deal stalled due to complex negotiations among the city government, MLB as owner of the team, and the bank. The bank requested a letter of credit or comparable financial guarantee against stadium rent to cover risks such as poor attendance or terrorism. The requested guarantee was $24 million, with the city requesting that MLB provide the guarantee.

 

[Dude]

Not really sure what you're getting at here; the Expos are now the Washington Nationals, and their new park is hardly dilapidated (it was only just completed last year). And I believe it's fully paid for - without taxpayer funds.

DC taxpayers dropped some $600 million on the Nationals new stadium.

I'm only going by what I read here. Specifically:

Financing for the stadium was expected to be provided by a banking syndicate led by Deutsche Bank. However, finalization of the financing deal stalled due to complex negotiations among the city government, MLB as owner of the team, and the bank. The bank requested a letter of credit or comparable financial guarantee against stadium rent to cover risks such as poor attendance or terrorism. The requested guarantee was $24 million, with the city requesting that MLB provide the guarantee.

That had to do with cost overruns that the DC City Council finally said were too much. This was after the City had agreed to a slowly increasing cost (to the City) from $450 million, through the 500s, and finally to $693 million after construction materials rose in cost following Katrina.

http://www.jdland.com/dc/stadium.cfm?tab=news

In Dec. 2004, DC and MLB agreed to a public financing package to build a 41,888-seat baseball stadium, allowing the former Expos to move to DC. In Feb. 2006 the DC City Council capped the city's expenditures on the project at $611 million, though land acquisition and other costs eventually drove the price tag to $693 million. The stadium, dubbed Nationals Park until naming rights have been awarded, opened officially on March 30, 2008, when the Nationals beat the Atlanta Braves 3-2.

 

[Squiggy]

In their defense...it is a pretty friggin' sweet stadium.

 

[Dude]

In their defense...it is a pretty friggin' sweet stadium.

Oh, no doubt. I wasn't complaining about it at all. It just wasn't paid for by private business as was thought, was all I was saying.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

In their defense...it is a pretty friggin' sweet stadium.

Oh, no doubt. I wasn't complaining about it at all. It just wasn't paid for by private business as was thought, was all I was saying.

Hmm. Interesting.

I can see why some people might not like the fact that taxpayer dollars went to fund it. But the same people who paid those taxes can attend the games. They can get some good out of it. So I'd call it even, really.

I also confess to some callousness, in that I want so much for new ballparks to be built that I find it difficult to *care* how they are funded.

And it IS a sweet stadium. I was there last year...in the same week I saw games at the oldest park (Fenway) and the newest (Nats). Quite a contrast! But I had an awesome time at both.

That being said: Riders on the DC Metro, which is how I got to Nats Park, are some of the rudest sonsabitches I have ever encountered. People think New Yorkers are rude? They've got nothing on DCers.