Oly jokes
Swami, are you in favor of Lake County getting the equestrian event for the 2016 Olympics? It’s a great deal for us, but I haven’t heard much support for it, only critics.
Hold on to your horses there, Bucko.
Chicago won’t know for several years if it will host the Games, but count us among the Very Antsy About The Whole Thing crowd of worriers. Yes, indeed, the Swami worries.
Need the see the fine print because Chicago has a notorious history of claiming a public project will cost one thing when it winds up costing an arm and leg extra (Like Millennium Park, remember?).
Swami has seen all this before with other Olymics.
Swami is so old his Social Security number is 1.
Swami is so old, his birth certificate says “expired” on it.
Swami’s jokes are all courtesy of Google.
Here’s the deal with Olympics. They can be fabulously expensive. Who pays? That will be the question in Chicago. There’s almost no way to forecast accurately now if the folks in Chicago are going to be left holding a large bag of brown stinky stuff. It’s surely happened before.
And while Chicagoans are theoretically old enough to make their own bad bargains, there’s no reason for Lake County to buy into the stinky deal just for the thrill of an equestrian center.
People who own horses and wish to show them at riding centers are free to do so, but it’s a rich guy’s hobby. Let the rich guys pay for it.
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And this from the Big City newspaper about the Sydney, Australia, Olympic experience in 2000:
And we quote…..” The state government, which funded the biggest share of the Games' costs, is still losing $10.8 million a year on the cost of running Olympic Park, though that figure is being reduced by about $1.6 million each year as the site redevelopment effort progresses, (Olympic Park Authority CEO Brian) Newman said."
And we quote again….."And while the money for infrastructure improvements for the Games was built into the state's regular budget and private companies picked up a third of the stadium-building costs, state taxpayers ended up footing more than $1.2 billion of the cost of building sports venues . . . "
And one last time just for Lake Countians…... “ money spent on a new international equestrian center, rowing center and shooting center was money not spent on other budget priorities… ."
Fine print, bucko. Check the fine print.
