[agojsman]

Does anybody know if an economic impact assessment was doe for the Pan Am Games? If so, do you know were I could find it?
Thanks

 

[ssiguy2]

Well I can tell you that Vancouver's Olympics were a great success for the people but unfortunately even more so for the politicians, developers, and real estate agents. Now taxes in BC are beginning to go up {ie the forth coming HST} and higher medicare premiums. BC is actually reducing the number of ambulance attendents if you can believe that. Our minimum wage is now 25% below the national average to help keep our prices down for our beloved tourists but has resulted in a lot of misery for the working poor.
What about the extra infastructure? Forget it. Almost all of Vancouver's new infastructure was skating rinks and a better road to Whistler for the Jaguar crowd who can afford to go there very weekend. Vancouver did get new social housing..........................at one $1,000,000 a unit!! I'm not kidding either. False Creek South was suppose to be 30% subsidized housing and that soon dropped to 10%. 300 units for $300 million.................nice work if you can get it. It has left the City of Vancouver so broke that the city is PLANNING to declare bankrupsty if the province doesn't come back and pay out the whole cost.
The Pan Am games would be even worse due to it's ultra low reputation. I always thought they went the way of the PanAm airways. I mentioned to my mom, dad, and sister and none of them even knew they were still being run.
Save your few tax dollars and spend it on Torontonians and not tourist who are going to come for a couple weeks.

 

[jn_12]

Economic impacts as well as profitability are impossible to measure no matter what anyone tells you. Because of things like multiplier effects and travel motivations you can't come up with an accurate measurement. If you want to get a sense of what I mean, here's an example: perhaps as a 15 year old I was exposed to Sydney Australia for the first time because they hosted the Olympics. Now as a 25 year old I have the means to actually travel there and bring money into their economy. Without the initial exposure, I probably would not have chosen to go there in the future. Now, how do you measure that since it is the result of the original event, only having an impact 10 years later? Simply put, you can't. That's just one example but the fact is that it's impossible to measure and any time you hear any sort of dollar amount attached to an event like this it's best to ignore it because it's not true.

 

[agojsman]

Thanks for the responses. But the question still remains, does anybody know if one was done? Thanks

 

[Oliver Tweed]

I mentioned to my mom, dad, and sister and none of them even knew they were still being run.

That's because we're clueless in Canada about amateur sport, outside of two weeks every four years.

 

[GenerationW]

Economic impacts as well as profitability are impossible to measure no matter what anyone tells you. Because of things like multiplier effects and travel motivations you can't come up with an accurate measurement.

If the economic benefits of a Pan Am (or any other) Games are absolutely impossible to measure, then why do their promoters keep talking about them? And if nothing can be truly measured, there's also no argument against saying only economic detriments will come with these events, or that it will all be a wash. All the answers on this test are correct since none can be proven incorrect.