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  #121  
Old Posted Feb 19, 2010, 12:25 PM
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Originally Posted by TAZ4ate0 View Post
So all this talk of olympic facilities has me wondering: Does anybody know what the status of USA Basketball's move to the Phoenix area (Glendale) is? Has that been pushed back with no exact timetable, or is it dead, or what? A quick internet search has only returned old information. Even USA Basketball's website has old information on the move dating back into 2008. There is really nothing newer out there, that I have found, than from about a year ago, and that information said that the move could come later this year. But, I don't see how that could be, I don't even think they have started construction on any of it.
Wasn't the La Paz county bond supposed to have taken care of this? Edit: yes:

Developers get $1.2B from rural county for USA Basketball, Main Street Glendale
Phoenix Business Journal - by Mike Sunnucks

Quote:
A Scottsdale development group is getting $1.2 billion in bond financing from La Paz County to develop the new USA Basketball headquarters as part of a mammoth project in Glendale.

HB Equities LLC inked a deal with the La Paz County Industrial Development Authority, which benefits to the tune of $12 million. HB is headed by partners Robert Banovac and Daniel Hendon, owner of Scottsdale-based Danny’s Car Wash chain. It will use $792 million of the total for the two projects.

Main Street Glendale plans call for 1,200 hotel rooms, 800,000 square feet of commercial space, including basketball training facilities, office, retail and a Nike-sponsored basketball museum. The USA Basketball headquarters will serve as a training base for the U.S. national men’s and women’s basketball teams.

Banovac and Hendon are partners in development firm Rightpath Ltd., which owns the land at Loop 101 and Maryland Avenue.

Banovac and Hendon said they are moving forward with Main Street Glendale without Rightpath’s other partner, Rick Burton. Banovac said Burton has opted to go in a different direction. Burton did not respond to requests for comment.

HB Equities is negotiating with Rightpath and Burton to acquire the land, which is adjacent to the new Camelback Ranch spring training baseball stadium, home to the Los Angeles Dodgers and Chicago White Sox, Banovac said.

Construction could begin within 120 days, Hendon and Banovac said.

Glendale City Manager Ed Beasley welcomed the financing deal noting that businesses are having a difficult time finding credit. Main Street complements nearby Westgate City Center and the University of Phoenix Stadium, he said. The city negotiated the headquarters move with USA Basketball and its chairman, Jerry Colangelo.

“We’re extremely pleased,” Beasley said. He said it is his understanding that HB Equities will take over the development from Rightpath, which also had been looking for bond financing.

Colangelo said the financing appears to have the USA Basketball move on track. “This announcement is very positive,” said Colangelo, who put together last year’s gold medal winning men’s basketball Olympics team. No timetable has been set for the move, but it could occur by the end of 2010, he said.

The HB Equities/La Paz County financing also allocates:

$125 million for debt restructuring and a 12-store expansion of Danny’s Car Wash from its current 17 locations.

$140 million for renovation of Marriott Mountain Shadows Resort and Golf Club in Scottsdale. HB is in the process of acquiring the resort, Hendon said.

$153 million to HB Equities for commercial airport and hanger developments at Glendale Municipal, Yuma International and Goodyear airports

$110 million to reimburse investors caught up in Rightpath’s involvement with Mortgages Ltd. Mortgages Ltd. filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy after the suicide of its CEO Scott Coles last year. Rightpath sued Mortgages claiming the latter failed to follow through with loan deals.

USA Basketball, the national body that oversees and picks teams for the Olympics and World Championships, entered a deal with Rightpath and the city of Glendale in November to move its base from Colorado Springs, Colo.

Financing for the basketball-centered development needed to be in place by May for the move to go through. “We would have lost the USA Basketball agreement,” Banovac said.

The Mens USA Basketball facility will include training centers to host practices for the Olympics and World Championship teams. The U.S. mens’ team at the Beijing Olympics last year included top players LeBron James and Kobe Bryant.

Main Street also will have restaurants and an 18-hole golf course. The site is on the west side of the Loop 101 Freeway across from University of Phoenix Stadium and Westgate City Center.

Hollywood, Calif.-based architecture and design firm Dodd Mitchell will oversee the Mountain Shadows renovations as well as Main Street Glendale design.

Beasley said the developers had other financing options, including Glendale Industrial Development Authority, but the La Paz deal is the most efficient.

IDAs allow Arizona cities and counties to offer bond financing for projects throughout the state. Banovac said La Paz County will get $12 million over 10 years from the deal and the Main Street financing is at no cost to taxpayers.

La Paz County is located in southwestern Arizona along the Colorado River. It has a population of 20,000, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. The desert county sits north of Yuma and across the Colorado River from California’s Imperial Valley.

An attorney representing the La Paz County IDA did not return telephone calls seeking comment.

Last edited by combusean; Feb 19, 2010 at 12:43 PM.
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  #122  
Old Posted Feb 19, 2010, 12:32 PM
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I just registered Phoenix20XX.org
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  #123  
Old Posted Feb 19, 2010, 9:39 PM
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Originally Posted by combusean View Post

But this premise of football stadiums as Olympic stadiums just doesn't work tho in practice. Baseball and soccer stadiums have a better precedent for conversion after.
There's just not much precedent b/c most countries don't play American football so obviously won't convert their stadiums to that afterwards. There's little difference between a 70K football stadium and a 70K soccer stadium. Atlanta needed a new baseball facility at the time, not a new football one so thats why they went that direction.

Football fields are 360 feet long by 160 feet wide, soccer fields are 300 feet long by 180 feet wide, so they're basically the same design wise for a stadium.

Really the only precedent we have for an Olympic stadium converting later to football is the LA Coliseum but it was opened in 1932 when stadium design was pretty awful compared to today. They didn't have the know how/technology to do multi tiered stadia so everything was these giant bowls where everyone in the top third of the stadium was sitting a mile from the action.

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Originally Posted by combusean View Post
how better the LA Colosseum is for baseball than football.
Im pretty sure he was just joking. It was neat/interesting to see baseball in the LA Coliseum but if you look at the picture its a really wonky set up. Right field is SUPER deep and left field is amazingly shallow. It was just a fun gimmicky thing they did as a one off.
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  #124  
Old Posted Feb 19, 2010, 10:02 PM
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^If I remember correctly, the Dodgers played in the Colesium in LA for the first two or three years while Chavez Ravine was being built.

You know, we're all splitting hairs about where the stadium should be and what the final (later) configuration should be. Question: how was Chicago planning to do it for 2012? Soldier Field was just majorly renovated in 2004 and is no longer capable of holding an olympic sized track. They certainly weren't planning on replacing Comiskey or Wrigley...so what was the plan? Track and Field at a separate venue? Because in that case, suddenly UofP looks even better as an opening/closing ceremonies venue (along with soccer and some other events)...despite its hideous and inconvenient location.
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  #125  
Old Posted Feb 19, 2010, 10:18 PM
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Chicagos plan was pretty unappealing/weird in my book, from WikiP:

Quote:
The Olympic Stadium would have been built in Washington Park, a site listed on the National Register of Historic Places in the Washington Park community area of the same name on the city's south side. Chicago initially proposed building a temporary 80,000-seat track stadium adjacent to Soldier Field and having the two stadiums host dual Opening and Closing Ceremonies.[56][57]

However, the final proposal called for a $366 million temporary stadium to be built in Washington Park. The stadium would have been replaced by a 10,000 seat multi-use venue after the games.[49] The smaller post-Olympic stadium would have been more in line with public interest in restoring the historic park after the games.[49]

The new stadium would have featured a high-tech reflective sheathing material to accommodate huge TV picture projections on its outside walls.[49] The temporary stadium would not have had concessions inside the stadium, unlike permanent local venues, although concessions were planned outside the stadium.[58][59]

The stadium would have featured a basic oval shape, but it would also have adhered to Olympic design rules which dictate that there must be an overhanging lip at one end to cover dignitaries and the media.[59] IOC president Jacques Rogge praised Chicago's design in November 2007 as a possible "blueprint for the future", reflecting the desire of the IOC to make the games both more affordable and to have a smaller ecological footprint on the host city.[60]
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  #126  
Old Posted Feb 20, 2010, 12:23 PM
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I would never support an Olympics in "Phoenix" that held the opening/closing ceremonies outside of Phoenix.
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  #127  
Old Posted Feb 20, 2010, 4:26 PM
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Originally Posted by Leo the Dog View Post
I would never support an Olympics in "Phoenix" that held the opening/closing ceremonies outside of Phoenix.
Well thats pretty silly and short sighted. "Bah I don't want world wide exposure and millions upon millions of dollars coming to my city if part of the event wasn't held within in city limits! Take your infrastructure and exposure and shove it!"

EDIT: I just have to say, this is the sort of attitude in general we in Arizona need to do away with. We need to stop (and I mean private citizens, the governments, everyone) thinking things are Phoenix vs Tucson. Or Mesa vs Glendale or whatever. Whats good for Glendale is good for Phoenix, whats good for Tempe is good for Arizona. We're all on the same team here and a rising tide lifts all boats, we need to stop the petty competition and take more supportive regional approaches to things.

Last edited by HooverDam; Feb 20, 2010 at 8:20 PM.
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  #128  
Old Posted Feb 20, 2010, 4:45 PM
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I would never support an Olympics in "Phoenix" that held the opening/closing ceremonies outside of Phoenix.
Because no professional sports team has their stadium not in the city they're named after? Go Arlington Cowboys! Go Landover Redskins!
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  #129  
Old Posted Feb 21, 2010, 2:34 AM
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I just think its utterly lame if the Olympics are held in suburbia, surrounded by cotton fields.
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  #130  
Old Posted Feb 21, 2010, 5:19 AM
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I just think its utterly lame if the Olympics are held in suburbia, surrounded by cotton fields.
What are you talking about? UofP wouldn't be an opening/closing ceremonies stadium due to the lack of a track. So either that stadium would replace SDS or be built new somewhere else (in Phx). Furthermore, do you really think the Westgate area will be nothing but cotton fields in 2024 or 2028?
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  #131  
Old Posted Feb 21, 2010, 1:25 PM
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What are you talking about? UofP wouldn't be an opening/closing ceremonies stadium due to the lack of a track. So either that stadium would replace SDS or be built new somewhere else (in Phx). Furthermore, do you really think the Westgate area will be nothing but cotton fields in 2024 or 2028?
If I'm not mistaken, there was talk of holding the opening/closing ceremonies at UofP stadium earlier on this thread, thats what I'm referring to.

Westgate may or may not be surrounded by cotton fields in 2028, however, it will still be deep in suburbia. Do you actually have any faith in the city of Glendale of becoming a cool urban suburban destination like Tempe? It will still be dominated by auto oriented development, if by a very slim chance this city can build a LR spur to that outpost, I seriously doubt this city would have it done by then.

If Phx ever were awarded an Olympics, the opening/closing ceremonies should be in Central Phoenix, where there is *some* culture and character to showcase to the world. Just imagine the aerial shots of Central Phoenix with the new stadium surrounded by our very urban streetscape/skyline/olympic village by 2028.
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  #132  
Old Posted Feb 22, 2010, 10:39 PM
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http://www.morethanthegames.co.uk/su...-2020-olympics

Quote:
America not to put forward host city for 2020 Olympics
THE USA will not be bidding for the 2020 Olympic Games after being snubbed twice in eight years by the International Olympic Committee.

Chicago's bid was the first to be eliminated in the 2016 voting in Copenhagen last October while New York was beaten by London for the 2012 Games.

With Chicago spending $80m (about £52m) on its bid as well pulling out all the stops with a guest appearance from President Barack Obama as voting was about to get underway, the US Olympic Committee (USOC) believe the IOC just do not want the Olympics to be held in the US.

"We don't have to look much further than what happened in the last two bid races," said USOC spokesman Patrick Sandusky.

"We have to focus our attention elsewhere. It may mean developing stronger relationships with the IOC or having time to do other things.

"At this time there's certainly no plans for 2020. Right now our focus is on other things, not just bidding."

Relations between the USOC and IOC have been strained in recent years over plans to restructure a television and sponsor contract between the two which is largely seen to be in America's favour.

At present, the USOC receives 12.75 percent of Olympic television rights fees and 20 percent of global marketing revenues - because of the involvement of US companies - in an open-ended contract.

The IOC generates more than half of its revenues from television rights and deals with the USA. These tend to be worth more than the rest of the world combined.

But the fact that the USOC receives a larger cut than the rest of the world put together is a sore point among IOC members and tensions spilled over when Chicago were the first bid to be eliminated last year.

"The cold and hard reality is Chicago spent approximately $80 million on its bid and it's going to be difficult to get U.S. cities to continue to invest to that level unless they think they have a realistic chance of winning," added USOC Chief Executive Scott Blackmun.

"The IOC sent us a message, loud and clear, that they don't want the Games to be in the United States.

"Unless we get some signs from the IOC, I think it's highly unlikely we would mount a bid on our own initiative."
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  #133  
Old Posted Feb 22, 2010, 10:53 PM
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Originally Posted by Leo the Dog View Post
If I'm not mistaken, there was talk of holding the opening/closing ceremonies at UofP stadium earlier on this thread, thats what I'm referring to.

Westgate may or may not be surrounded by cotton fields in 2028, however, it will still be deep in suburbia. Do you actually have any faith in the city of Glendale of becoming a cool urban suburban destination like Tempe? It will still be dominated by auto oriented development, if by a very slim chance this city can build a LR spur to that outpost, I seriously doubt this city would have it done by then.

If Phx ever were awarded an Olympics, the opening/closing ceremonies should be in Central Phoenix, where there is *some* culture and character to showcase to the world. Just imagine the aerial shots of Central Phoenix with the new stadium surrounded by our very urban streetscape/skyline/olympic village by 2028.
Sun Devil Stadium?

And regarding Chicago in the 2016 Olympics: I still think they had a better bid than Rio.

Chicago
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Rio
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  #134  
Old Posted Feb 22, 2010, 10:58 PM
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Thats actually good news as far as Phoenix is concerned. Theres no way we'd be ready by 2020 and you wouldnt want a city like NY, Chicago or Houston getting the 2020 games and sinking AZs chances in 2024 or 28.
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  #135  
Old Posted Feb 22, 2010, 11:13 PM
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Thats actually good news as far as Phoenix is concerned. Theres no way we'd be ready by 2020 and you wouldnt want a city like NY, Chicago or Houston getting the 2020 games and sinking AZs chances in 2024 or 28.
You're missing the deeper point of the article. The IOC just doesn't like the US right now. That makes a bid for Phoenix difficult since Phoenix happens to be in the US.
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  #136  
Old Posted Feb 22, 2010, 11:27 PM
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Leave it to the US to get on someone's bad side because they want more money.
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  #137  
Old Posted Feb 22, 2010, 11:31 PM
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You're missing the deeper point of the article. The IOC just doesn't like the US right now. That makes a bid for Phoenix difficult since Phoenix happens to be in the US.
No, Im not. One guy said the IOC doens't like America which is ridiculous, it sounds more like sour grapes than being reasonable. South America has never hosted the games, that was a HUGE draw and Rio was a great choice. By the time American bids for 2024 or 28 roll around the USOC could have a different chief and things could be vastly different.
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  #138  
Old Posted Feb 22, 2010, 11:32 PM
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The IOC just doesn't like to look at the U.S. In their opinion, there's not assurance that a U.S. city can handle and be prepared for the games when the time comes.

If I remember correctly, the federal government doesn't give much, if any, money towards funding the games if they're held in the country. I don't recall Atlanta getting any, they had to use stadiums as far away as Birmingham and Miami. Because of this, they generally just don't wanna take the chance. But, I'm doubting that if a city wasn't able to do it all, the federal government wouldn't step in and help out.

The U.S. needs to put together joint bids. Make a "Texas Games" using facilities in all of the large cities that would really show off the state. Or, a Seattle/Portland games. Maybe an LA/San Diego games, NYC/Philadelphia, Baltimore/Washington, or just the entire state of Florida. I'm thinking that for now on, it's gonna be all about strategy.

If single cities can't do it themselves, what about entire states? I remember when the former mayor of Birmingham started a bid for the 2020 Olympics, Birmingham itself doing it was out of the question, but the entire state could have done it easily. We need to start thinking bigger.

And I do realize that this is a SW US thread
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  #139  
Old Posted Feb 23, 2010, 2:49 AM
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Originally Posted by tredici View Post
The IOC just doesn't like to look at the U.S. In their opinion, there's not assurance that a U.S. city can handle and be prepared for the games when the time comes.

If I remember correctly, the federal government doesn't give much, if any, money towards funding the games if they're held in the country. I don't recall Atlanta getting any, they had to use stadiums as far away as Birmingham and Miami. Because of this, they generally just don't wanna take the chance. But, I'm doubting that if a city wasn't able to do it all, the federal government wouldn't step in and help out.

The U.S. needs to put together joint bids. Make a "Texas Games" using facilities in all of the large cities that would really show off the state. Or, a Seattle/Portland games. Maybe an LA/San Diego games, NYC/Philadelphia, Baltimore/Washington, or just the entire state of Florida. I'm thinking that for now on, it's gonna be all about strategy.

If single cities can't do it themselves, what about entire states? I remember when the former mayor of Birmingham started a bid for the 2020 Olympics, Birmingham itself doing it was out of the question, but the entire state could have done it easily. We need to start thinking bigger.

And I do realize that this is a SW US thread
Valley of the Sun summer olympics (Phoenix/Tucson) sounds good to me.

Would force commuter rail between the two cities and also force Tucson to finally build some sort of mass transit system and force Phoenix to expand its.
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  #140  
Old Posted Feb 25, 2010, 3:39 PM
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Anyone still think Olympics in Phx are a good idea?

Source: http://www.cnbc.com/id/35581780

Quote:
A $1 Billion Hangover From an Olympic Party
Published: Thursday, 25 Feb 2010 | 9:39 AM ET Text Size
By: Ian Austen

VANCOUVER, British Columbia — Josie Lombardi came downtown this week for a taste of the Olympics accompanied by a friend rather than her husband, because he is on an Olympics boycott.

She was thrilled to see the Olympic caldron up close, she said, but after being told she would have to wait five hours to see an exhibit of Olympic medals, Mrs. Lombardi began to think her husband might have a point.

“O.K., are the Olympics worth it?” Mrs. Lombardi said while stopping for lunch at Murchie’s, a venerable tea and coffee shop. “I don’t want to be too negative because there’s good and bad, but I have to agree with my husband. All he can talk about is the debt. I’m worrying about what’s going to happen next.”

While hundreds of thousands of people have streamed onto the streets to enjoy (some of them to excess late at night) the Olympic party, there is still an undercurrent of crankiness and apprehension in the city.

Vancouver was always an odd choice to become the world’s winter sports capital for two weeks. Among Canadians, it is best known as the nation’s winter avoidance capital. But the misgivings among residents began even before this winter’s unseasonable warmth and sunshine bathed the city’s renowned parks and gardens, bringing daffodils and flowering trees bursting into glorious February bloom.

Well before the Games began, the global recession pushed several of the Games’s sponsors, including Nortel Networks and General Motors, into bankruptcy. Whistler Blackcomb, the resort that is hosting the Alpine skiing events, will soon be sold at auction.

Security costs, first estimated at $165 million, are now headed toward $1 billion.

Still, organizers insist the operating budget will break even. But that forecast includes $423 million in emergency money from the International Olympic Committee, and detailed financial information will not appear until after the Games are over.

As for Vancouver’s municipal government and the taxpayers, the bad news is already in. The immediate Olympic legacy for this city of 580,000 people is a nearly $1 billion debt from bailing out the Olympic Village development. Beyond that, people in Vancouver and British Columbia have already seen cuts in services like education, health care and arts financing from their provincial government, which is stuck with many other Olympics-related costs. Many people, including Mrs. Lombardi, expect that more will follow.

While the mood in the city has picked up since the start, when many people were suffering a severe case of buyer’s remorse, the looming budget realities make it unlikely that all will be forgiven or forgotten.

“While it’s very hard to see all the costs, I think people are going to pay for it for a long time,” said Lee Fletcher as he walked past several flowering cherry trees near his apartment outside Stanley Park, a large tract of forest tucked up against the city’s downtown. “Some people are going to benefit hugely, not the average guy. The average guy is going to see his taxes increase.”

The average guy, who cannot easily afford Olympics tickets (even attending the medals ceremonies costs $21, plus service charges), has had other reasons to complain. The flaming caldron that Mrs. Lombardi admired was initially hidden behind a chain link fence that evoked a medium-security prison. And until local spirits were dampened by the Canadian hockey team’s loss to the United States, a large section of downtown was overrun nightly by boisterous, hollering celebrants, an astonishing number of whom were drunk.

The task of defending the Olympics has fallen to Vancouver’s mayor, Gregor Robertson, who won office in large part because of a voter revolt over the Olympic Village that led voters to dump the right-of-center party that brought the Games to town.

The real estate development industry, which is unusually powerful in Vancouver, provided the city with an Olympic Village plan that seemed — and ultimately was — too good to be true. A development firm would finance and build the village on a desirable piece of city-owned land. After the Games, the developer would convert the accommodations into luxury condominiums and pay the city for the property. Vancouver would get its village and turn a profit as well.

But cost overruns, combined with the credit crisis in 2008, destroyed the financing. Once in office, Mr. Robertson had to obtain special permission from the province to borrow $434 million to complete the village.
In all, the city is responsible for about $1 billion in development costs, a situation that lowered its credit rating.

If Vancouver’s real estate market remains strong, the city may recover most of that money. If not, Mr. Robertson said, “the city is on the hook for some hundreds of millions of dollars.”

Stuck with the Olympics, Mr. Robertson is trying to wring all that he can from the Games and its related publicity for Vancouver, an unusually attractive city that shows well on television. But even some of mayor’s supporters now worry that that the Olympics may prove to be more of a burden than an opportunity.

“It’s going to be very tight financially,” said Chris Haddock, the producer and writer of a critically acclaimed television series about Vancouver politics that was broadcast by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. “Some of the things they want to do, and want to prove, will have to be put off.”

Mr. Robertson is candid about the city’s potential Olympic problems but he doggedly steers any conversation back toward his goal of using the Olympics to attract investments from companies in the environmental sector to make the city a green technology center.

Kennedy Stewart, a professor of public policy at Simon Fraser University in suburban Vancouver who has written extensively about the city’s politics, remains unconvinced that showing potential investors a good time during the Olympics will resolve Vancouver’s long-term economic issues. The forestry industry, once the mainstay of its economy, has been devastated by a beetle infestation, the collapse of the housing market in the United States and competition from South America. While motion picture production companies and software developers have set up shop here in recent years, they lack the same economic impact.

“What’s the substantive thing Vancouver has to offer other than its nice mountains and vastly overpriced real estate?” Professor Stewart asked. “The forestry industries have collapsed, so where is the money going to come from other than marijuana grow-ops?”
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