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The Gabba Olympics Saga

Diamond_Jim
Diamond_Jim
in Melbourne Demons

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This is heating up.

Definitely a few buckets of popcorn required...........

Brisbane’s lord mayor, Adrian Schrinner, has quit the Brisbane 2032 Games delivery forum, saying the Palaszczuk government had “completely lost its way” on the road to the Olympics.

The Liberal National mayor has also withdrawn his support for a $2.7bn Gabba rebuild, insisting there must be better options than demolishing and rebuilding the inner-city venue.

On Friday the government announced it would chip in $46m for a proposal to upgrade Brisbane’s showgrounds with a temporary 20,000-seat stadium to act as the city’s home of AFL and cricket while the Gabba was rebuilt.

The government requested the remaining $91m cost be shared by Brisbane city council, AFL and cricket authorities and the Royal National Agricultural and Industrial Association of Queensland, which runs the annual Ekka show at the venue.

https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2023/dec/03/brisbane-mayor-resigns-from-2032-olympics-forum-calls-it-a-dysfunctional-farce

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    Things like this are so exasperating I just shrug and keep an eye open for the starter pistol of proletarian revolution.

    Now that'd be an entertaining Olympic event! How would you keep score, though?

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    On the First Morning of the 2004 Olympics in Greece, there was a Major Drug Scandal, with Athletes riding through the City on Vespa’s evading Officials and Police. 
    I haven’t watched one moment of Olympic Competition since. 
     

    What a Grotesque waste of money they are…

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    I was shocked when i heard Brisbane got the Olympics in 2032. 

    Obviously there were no other serious bids.   Absolute insane waste of money for a 14 days athletics meet.

    There will be cost blowouts (corruption) on the multiple stadia and facilities needed  not to mention soccer and baseball tournaments  ffs.

    No way Brisbane can afford the cost.

    The Federal gov will be pressured to bail them out financially.

    Dont be surprised if you all end up paying for major stadia infrastructure in Brisbane.

    Theyre scabs in QLD. Watch them like a hawk. They'll want you to pay for it.

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    Not so fast. The Afl (Gil's) outrageous Hobart stadium racket ranks up there with this issue given the scale of impact on a city smaller than Geelong and the nation's worst housing crisis.

    My tip is eventually tassie govt will change and rightfully renege on the plan.

    Poor Brissie is just stuck and will be car car crash

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    Olympics are now just ego traps for Governments. Politicians doing favours. 
    He sure wasn’t perfect, but i am glad Andrews curtailed the Commonwealth Games before he left. Now they are a complete waste of time…

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    Demolishing a perfectly good stadium is just insane.

    Building a 'temporary' stadium at the show grounds is insane.

    Replicating a stadium next door to an existing one in Hobart is insane.

    The Lions should just play at Metricon.

    It's underutilised and actually not a bad stadium to watch footy.

    The Brisbane Olympics are going to cost an estimated $7,100,00,000,000.

    let's say 8 billion conservatively as a true cost.

    at 14 days for an event running maybe 18hours a day works out about half a million dollars a minute I think.

    AN obscene waste of money.

    Schools, health, aged care, housing. Naaah, Olympics maaaate

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    Brisbane being awarded the Olympics are a bit like getting a Hard Rock Cafe or Planet Hollywood franchise just when they start to be a bit naff. 

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      On 03/12/2023 at 03:44, Rab D Nesbitt said:

    Brisbane being awarded the Olympics are a bit like getting a Hard Rock Cafe or Planet Hollywood franchise just when they start to be a bit naff. 

    Never understood the popularity of those gimmicky yankee bars including TGI's.

    Theyre just a bar with overpriced drinks and a few silly photos stuck on the wall.  Theyre usually opened or owned by some shonky Hollywood celebrities.

    Rather drink at home or at a friends place.

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    They're not a waste of money, because they create jobs and create revenue for local businesses, but when governments are imposing austerity in most other sectors of the economy, spending on stadiums and infrastructure for the Olympics does feel like the wrong value proposition. But we lost our way on many of our values many decades ago, so this is merely a continuation of this.

    Edited by Binmans PA

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      On 03/12/2023 at 04:09, Binmans PA said:

    They're not a waste of money, because they create jobs and create revenue for local businesses, but when governments are imposing austerity in most other sectors of the economy, spending on stadiums and infrastructure for the Olympics does feel like the wrong value proposition. But we lost our way on many of our values many decades ago, so this is merely a continuation of this.

    Same story for all the 100's of $Millions spent on 'Training venues' for most of the AFL & NRL clubs?  Often, those vast amounts of money comes with a caveat ... buying votes in close run electorates (except when it comes to the MFC of course, where the value of inner City votes is negligible)

    And as @Demon17 mentioned, the $Billion (at least) to be spent on the Hobart venue (for the AFL) may go ahead instead of that money being spent on health, housing etc etc

    The argument is broad, not just confined to the Olympics

    Edited by Macca

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      On 03/12/2023 at 04:27, Macca said:

    And as @Demon17 mentioned, the $Billion (at least) to be spent on the Hobart venue (for the AFL) may go ahead instead of that money being spent on health, housing etc etc

    Our health system in Tasmania is poor, but not due to funding. It gets close to half the State Budget. Problems are structural but nobody has the desire to tackle it. Housing has much the same issues.

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      On 03/12/2023 at 05:07, Clintosaurus said:

    Our health system in Tasmania is poor, but not due to funding. It gets close to half the State Budget. Problems are structural but nobody has the desire to tackle it. Housing has much the same issues.

    My initial point is that it's not just the Gabba getting funding, as the NRL & AFL clubs get heaps of public monies as well

    Besides which, the AFL and Cricket will be the beneficiaries of a refurbushed Gabba

    So the argument is broad and widespread and not just confined to the Olympics

    As an aside, 84% of the venues needed for the Olympics in Brisbane are in place

    It's really just the Gabba that needs upgrading and again, after the Olympics are done, cricket & footy will be the winners 

    In the meantime, the Lions can play at Metricon for a few years.  And if anyone does care, the t20's can be held there as well

    But the money spent on the Gabba can be compared to the money spent on a would-be stadium in Hobart

    Edited by Macca

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      On 03/12/2023 at 02:17, Sir Why You Little said:

    Olympics are now just ego traps for Governments. Politicians doing favours. 
    He sure wasn’t perfect, but i am glad Andrews curtailed the Commonwealth Games before he left. Now they are a complete waste of time…

    Let’s be honest though.. Dictator Dan never had any intentions for Victoria to host the games. It was purely a strategy to buy votes from Rural towns. 

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      On 03/12/2023 at 05:22, Ethan Tremblay said:

    Let’s be honest though.. Dictator Dan never had any intentions for Victoria to host the games. It was purely a strategy to buy votes from Rural towns. 

    Possibly. It is hard to put exact figures on any of these things. But i have no doubt the final figures were a complete blow out. 
    So i am glad we curtailed it. Canada did the same. 
    The Commonwealth Games have no meaning anymore. They peaked in the 1950’s

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      On 03/12/2023 at 05:22, Ethan Tremblay said:

    Let’s be honest though.. Dictator Dan never had any intentions for Victoria to host the games. It was purely a strategy to buy votes from Rural towns. 

    LOL. You mean the dictator democratically elected in a landslide victory yeah? 

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      On 03/12/2023 at 05:44, Sir Why You Little said:

    Possibly. It is hard to put exact figures on any of these things. But i have no doubt the final figures were a complete blow out. 
    So i am glad we curtailed it. Canada did the same. 
    The Commonwealth Games have no meaning anymore. They peaked in the 1950’s

    You mean you're not looking forward to watching Australia crush Tonga in lawn bowls SWYL?

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      On 03/12/2023 at 05:44, Sir Why You Little said:

    Possibly. It is hard to put exact figures on any of these things. But i have no doubt the final figures were a complete blow out. 
    So i am glad we curtailed it. Canada did the same. 
    The Commonwealth Games have no meaning anymore. They peaked in the 1950’s

    Agree they’ve peaked.

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    What do people think are the chances of the AFL kicking in $20M plus to do up the Ekka grounds as mentioned in the article.

    AFL isn't known for giving money to State Governments after years of being on the receiving end.

    Be interesting to know if the GC ground was ever discussed?

    Flip it and imagine we and Geelong were the only Victorian clubs. Would we go down to Kardinia for a few years while they rebuilt the MCG

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      On 03/12/2023 at 06:10, Rab D Nesbitt said:

    LOL. You mean the dictator democratically elected in a landslide victory yeah? 

    Social policies and promising new infrastructure wins votes. Toxic Dan played the lying game well. 

    Edited by Ethan Tremblay

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    Of course they do ET. Sometimes governments even follow through on them. It's a misconception though to think that DA is / was toxic though and the only people surprised at his election victories were the ones getting their information from their "News" Corp echo chamber. The Dictator Dan quip was lazy then and boring now. And I didn't even vote for the guy. 

    Your patter on here is usually pretty good Ethan and the off season is a good time to try out some new material. 

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      On 03/12/2023 at 06:41, Rab D Nesbitt said:

    Of course they do ET. Sometimes governments even follow through on them. It's a misconception though to think that DA is / was toxic though and the only people surprised at his election victories were the ones getting their information from their "News" Corp echo chamber. The Dictator Dan quip was lazy then and boring now. And I didn't even vote for the guy. 

    Your patter on here is usually pretty good Ethan and the off season is a good time to try out some new material. 

    Something tells me you’re a lefty and you don’t like it when anyone has an opposing view to yours. Ok.. not toxic. A communist dictator then. 

    Edited by Ethan Tremblay

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      On 03/12/2023 at 06:49, Ethan Tremblay said:

    Something tells me you’re a lefty and you don’t like it when anyone has an opposing view to yours. Ok.. not toxic. A communist dictator then. 

    I'm not bothered what anyone's political views are. Particularly on an online football forum. I only replied to your post because 1. It's nearly 2024 and you're still going with the DD thing and 2. It might be more constructive to think about why whoever you vote for are currently unelectable. 

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