Please stop trying to make everything look like a scandal . City Hall was given tickets to distribute in the ridings they represent. Guess what? The kid that lives under me and the other little kid he plays road hockey with an the entire novice team he plays on, is going. They were awarded tickets by the local rep. Articles in the paper like the one you wrote yesterday, were an attempt to make it look like City Hall was ripping off its citizens.
You made it look like it was so bad they were given tickets. Guess what Editor? They were the ones that got the money together to host the bid. They got a little perk so that someone in the riding they represent will be able to enjoy the product of thier hardwork. Would it be shitty to know some kids in cole harbor or fairview or where ever got screwed out because of the way tickets are distributed?
Just stop, please.
This article appears in May 1-7, 2008.
I am curious if Tim, okayed this bid? Tim, did you see the effort and work that went in World Championships of Hockey? Did they spend any taxpayer money on lavish meals to get the games? Did you go over the bid and scrutinze if this was worth it to the taxpayers? Tim, why are you not making large articles about the “scandal” of city officials getting tickets to hand out? Clearly you made sure this was all in order first? Did you attend the city meetings a few years ago to make sure this was going to benefit all the citzens of the area? Are you sure we are going to make money in this venture? Just eggin ya Tim. It is just if you are going to look like a hero about things in city hall, you better do it for ALL bids. You pointed out so much shit in your article that was done to get to get the games for halifax, that you should have been on the ball and doing the same “journalism” now that the championships are here too.
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huh?
Huh. Now it works. Let me try again. To the original poster:er, you’ve got the wrong paper. And, you won’t find MLAs walking around City Hall. City officials are not handing out tickets. It’s provincial reps. To Homie: it cost us $2 million to host the hockey tournament- $1 million from the city and $1 million from the province. I honestly don’t know how to assess it. I don’t have it with here with me now, but I have an economic study that supposedly justifies the expense in terms of economic benefit derived (I forget the dollar amount, off the top of my head). Yea, I’m generally distrustful of these sort of things, because I think there’s a lot of guesswork and assumptions that go into them to justify the wanted outcome. (by the way, the economic impact study for the Commonwealth Games said that it would generate about $2 billion in new economic activity, which is almost exactly what the games would’ve ended up costing. You could get a better return in a passbook savings account.)That said, on the other hand, my guess is this is the kind of event Halifax can pull off, because there are no other real competitors. You need a small-to-mid size city, because larger cities already have their own hockey franchise, among other reason. And, at present, with the Habs in the NHL playoffs, fan attention farther west will be focused on that. I’d worry more about the success of the Quebec tournament than the Halifax side of things.Whichever way you look at it, comparing a $2 million investment to a $2 billion investment is comparing apples and oranges.
it is? Gotcha, this event brought nothing to the city. There isnt a single venue built or improved upon. There was money spent by city hall and what not arguing over whether or not this bid should take place, and that is never factored into the cost. And the OP might have the wrong paper, but you did the same shit when you posted that article that only showed one side of the coin bro. You article was thorough in the side you wanted to portray, but you failed to mention any of the positives. Looking back, you only showed the negative. Now, the article in question…. did the exact same thing you did. You made your opinion look justified by showing this as some sort of scandal. Now you just showed that you have little to no idea how to run things like this. You do not cities this size to host the games. Toronto could have done just as good of a job, as it has 3 arenas that are comperable to the Metro Center. Tim, i have told you that a break even in the commonwealth games is better for the province as at least you are getting something back for all the venues and upgrades they bring. I have waited patiently for you to show me a way for all the same venues that the games would have brought to be built by the date the commonwealth games are needed, and a way to build them cheaper. Facts- sports facilities in this city are incredibly poor shape, from arenas to ballfields to the fact there isnt a suitable track to host a track meet in this city. – there is lots of want for a stadium, one that could have been scaled down after the games, to say the size of the one that the Montreal Alouettes played in and that would have ended the crying about concerts on the commons and ruining its precious sod.- the metro center is why so many things do not come to this city. Its sightlines are among some of the worst for upper level fans, the configuration is so cramped that many concerts pass on halifax as the lost of 1k-2k in seats because of them sightlines makes the cost to travel out here, combined with the loss of extra income because the seats arent available makes it pointless to come out here. Please tim, just repsond how you think this can be done and cheaper? Reality is that the World Championships of hockey does nothing for this city. That is the reason that 1) we arent getting the important playoff bids …… 2) during the bidding stage of this… halifax was the weaker of the two cities…. but who would have guessed that Q city would turn out to be a joke.
Here we go again…
well, i want to know what this is bringing to the city of Halifax? How did this make the city any better? It would be nice to live in a city that got shit done. If there is a better alternative to the games, then please….. someone show the way, or at least comment how it could be done. So far, the response is “we cant afford it”, but there hasnt been a cheaper explanation tabled, or a realistic one.
I get that you want Commonwealth Games, and I’m not going to convince you otherwise. Likewise, you me. It’s a circular arguement.As for the hockey tournament, the justification is that it will generate tourism, and we will all make money. To some extent, that’s true– there are a lot of people in town right now, spending lots of money.It’s an open question whether that $2 million would have generated more or less economic activity had it stayed in the taxpayers’ hands, or spent on something (imo) better, like transit, which would potentially can save a lot of people a lot of money.Increase that to $2 billion…
I am indifferent to the games actually. That is your assumption.simply put, you have not given me a single answer to my question as to what would be a decent alternative to getting all these facilities and other things that the games would have built….(ie: money that would have gone to fixing up Shannon Park, highways and roads and convention center).You have said what cant be done. Now, if you rule this, than you must have an alternative that can be done cheaper and be completed in the same time? You cant, you have dodged this question OVER and OVER. Of course you know that the transit companies of Montreal, and Calgary significantly improved as they worked with city co-ordinaters and games planners. They also received significant cash from the province and the feds. Now after seeing how long it takes to build the twin sisters, and destroy the cogswell mess and fix up shannon park, how they are still arguing about switching some curling club to an indoor soccer pitch, do you really think by time the games roll around, all of these things will be fixed? Come on dude, you have told me what you cant do… and you have guessed what we cant afford. I can show you positives from Calgary and Montreal (and that games lost money because of an EXTREMLY weak dollar), can you show me how you plan to fix up the facilities in a reasonable fashion? Can you honestly say you think you will see a new arena downtown, a stadium, shannon park fixed up by 2012? I am wanting to hear how you think these things that NEED to be addressed can be done cheaper. The feds arent going to kick in for each individual project. You arent going to get any revenue from a TV contract to help fix up or build venues. You arent going to get a nickel from ticket sales or tourists now….so tim, these same things will cost the CITY of halifax over $150 million when all is said and done….. and you wont get shit from help or ways to recoup the cost. Please dispute anything i say. You havent yet. Again, i am not for or against the games. I just see more positives than negatives. We need facilites, that is a fact. Please stope beating around the bush and provide an alternative. You have told the people how the money was spent because you thought it was a bad thing….. but please….. you are supposed to be neutral, and i ask you, is this neutral? It would be nice of you to post an article to show what this city missed out on.
I am afraid to jump both feet into this one, because I am not very educated or informed on the topic, I’ll put that out there first, I can speak on the money that is being spent during the hockey tourney from the tourism side of things.People are here and they are spending money, you can’t get a hotel/motel/dorm room near downtown or anywhere close, there are a few rooms left at a few not so nice facilities but even they have bookings, there is no question people are here and they are spending money, I have processed some of they spending transactions in reservations and accommodation’s, here in the city.
my point is this to him jenn…the championship games, while nice and all, didnt build a single thing in this city. I am all for the championships and all, but really what legacy will be left behind?Little to none. Did these games increase the chances that arenas will be fixed or repaired? No. Did these games do anything other than make people aware that our city exists? Forsure, but it is also highlighting our defiencies…. it is showing that our city isnt big enough to hold world class events on its own. While this is a trend here in Canada to have these shared bids, they arent common worldwide. in terms of the OP, the article in the Chronicle, it shows the negativity the media in this city purveys. I read the article myself and thought, “if they gave out the tickets, this article already vilified them”. Media like this shit about the tickets and the article that tim wrote, while factually accurate, only show one side of things. I am guessing the talked about in the OP, can verify that articles like that one, make shit worse than it is.
The other thing that i was getting at in some of my earlier posts about the biased articles like the one tim wrote and the one in OP, people get defensive about the things that politicians do and suspect corruption, or scandal or incompetence, but this is merely speculation on the part of the authors and editors.Here some shit that tim didnt highlight in his article.1) the majority of the supplies and products used to build these facilities would have been provided by Scotians. That is reinjecting money back into our own economy. Something that many businesses could use in this province. The brick, concrete, lumber would all prosper and benefit some scotians.2) Like Calgary, thousands of people moved there and bought up property as the amount of people it takes to build these facilities is massive, that is all money tossed into our tax base for MANY MANY years beyond the games. 3) Facilites like Calgary’s, have led to large migration of athletes to the area, making the need for more sports and physio clinics. This province is having a hard time keeping doctors as they graduate from school here, and move to areas that sporting facilities and sports are a large part of the culture. In the case of the OP, it is unlikely that we will see the results of that article. We will never know if the tickets were given out. When we look back at this, we only read the article that makes the city hall folk with tickets look bad.Both articles were tabloid-like stuff, in the sense they never intended to show the other side. They dont have to answer to no one. Proof they dont, look how many think this shit about commonwealth games is bad…… and i have asked a simple question, how do you suggest we fix our facilities and shit, without fed money, tv contracts for the games, ticket revenue for the games…. nothing. PLEASE TELL ME. So far… no one has said shit. No one calls these editors and writers to be accountable.
Tim, just for the record, HRM councillors and bureaucrats were given 3000 tickets for the championships. It wasn’t just MLAs.
The tickets were to be given out in the riding of the mla and councillors. If not a charge of $35 was to be given in place of donating the tickets.BIG DEAL. 3000 tickets out of what……. 10k seats, for 26 games. That is over 260,000 seats available for the games in halifax alone. Wow, what a scandal huh? Incredicble shame the people that organized the funding for the people decided to give .01% of all tickets available to kids or for $35 bucks, to family and friends.Amazing how bullshit the editors are. Of course when they posted that number of 3000 tickets, they didnt say to what games. They could be to some of these games with countries that we could careless to see play. The number 3000 tickets sounds really big, but when you put it into contect of 260k seats, do you really give a shit about these 3k seats? Come the fuck on, lets complain about politicians making real mistakes or having real scandals. This is just a perk for doing things for your city.
I know this isn’t about the CGames (Commonwealth, not Canada) which is why you didn’t need to bother with your first post which was really just a dig at Tim about an argument you cant seem to let go of. And I’m saying keep it out of new threads.
I AM FROM SPRYFIELD…How the hell did or why did that get thrown in there Lori…and I know the people who run the rink and tickets WERE given to the Lion’s Club…my Dad was a long rtime standing member of the club and I am still in close contact with the members!!
I call Bullshit! If the Lions club got the tickets maybe the higher ups kept them for themselves, kinda like a shitload of money that was stolen at the beginning of the season which left the kids with no banquet this year!
but lori….that doesnt change the point of the OP. If the lions club misappropriated the tickets….. then the MLA’s shouldnt have been suggested for misappropriation or bothered with in the article.
People are Stupid, that isnt the point of my rant… it is not about the games….you people just read that into it. Not my fault or problem. It is that people in a position such as an editor or author of an article should be unbiased as how they present fact. While accurate in both articles, the point was made by both Tim and the chronicle herald guy that this was some corrupt scandal going on…… Neither was. Both will never publish the other side of the coin. This is more about the accountability of the articles they right. Actually, if you read my comment down towards the bottom of this………. i state that i am indifferent about the games. It is just that these people are abusing the power they are given and arent held accountable for what they print.
True Homie….sorry, I guess I should have more trust in city hall. And less trust in the people writing articles in our papers. You never know who you can trust anymore!!???
Personnally, I think everyone is a scam artist, but maybe that’s because I live in Spryfield!!! lol
Lori…You can call bullshit call 479-2917 AND ASK where the tickets went, if they misused them and didn’t give them to the kids then that should be looked into and if you are a volunteer at the boys and girls club I would say you should deffo look into it
no need to apologize lori, this was something that we take for granted. We expect the editors of these papers to produce unbiased articles. If not, they can be tossed into the editorial section and we can make our own judgement. People are stupid and others seem to think i am suggesting my shit about the commonwealth games is that….. i am indifferent about this shit, but before bashing the people that put out there that the games werent good for us, and are bad for the community, the print that gives us the facts, should do so in an impartial manner. Both the article that tim wrote, and the OP’s rant, are prime examples of an editor showing an opinion, by leaving out stuff. On the surface it looked like news, but after me posting 5 MLA and the people they gave the tickets to, does it not sound like the article was pointless? Why point out that they got tickets? Why not call a random sample of say 10 and ask specifically what they did with the tickets? Then call and verify if they did give it away. Problem solved. But to make it look like scandal, they stop at the fact they got tickets.
Come the fuck on? This IS worth complaining about when you live in a community full of kids who would NEVER have a chance to see world class hockey like this UNLESS a ticket was given to them. Yet, I haven’t heard of any kids in my community or from my son’s hockey association recieving anything….that includes the $35 that is supposed to be donated to youth sports if the tickets are kept for themselves or given to friends! And as far as ‘countries that we could care less about seeing’ well if you’re a hockey fan and someone passed you FREE tickets to IIHF Hockey you would gladly take them and enjoy them no matter what teams were playing…not to mention the experience of being around that many different cultures.
Lori, have you called your association? how many people live in your riding? Have you called the people that were awarded the tickets? It is only THREE THOUSAND tickets, how many kids are in each association? 3k tickets, divided by how many people? Lets just say each person got 50 tickets, that is less than 300 tickets for each riding. So you didnt hear about 300 tickets being given out. Have you though that they might have been given to the association and it was those people that hoarded them and didnt give each kid within in the organization the chance to know about, or recieve the tickets? It isnt uncommon for scandals and shit like this to go on within your association. Please do not be so quick like the newspaper is to assume that it is the city hall folks to say they are ripping people off or whatever. By the way….. $35 X 3000…. lets just say for a second that half of them tickets were given out. That would leave $52,500 worth of tickets. Do you really think that if that money was spread out among…… how many teams, arenas and associations, that it would make the news? Do you think your association is going to send you a news letter that i might recieve about $4k after all is said and done? I am not saying this is a scandal….. but why is everyone so quick to rule out any other possibility?
” a community full of kids “so you are saying Lori that this is worth complaining about because YOU personally dont know of any kids that got the tickets…. but if there is only 300 tickets to go in YOUR community, and there is no doubt more than 5000 kids in your neighborhood, what are the chances that someone would be given the tickets and know you? I dont recall hearing all about lots of crap like this, doesnt mean it doesnt happen. Actually, my son plays novice. I know nothing about what happens with the Peewee teams or Bantam teams in terms of every single thing that happens with them. Even the newsletters we get dont go into great detail about them teams.
We all had the opportunity to purchase tickets to this event, either as the full tournament pass, or individual tickets. It amazes me that people are whining because they didn’t get a freebie.
My son’s godfather is at the top of the chain….I would know if the association recieved tickets, I am also very active in my community and know A LOT of the kids, so just as you say don’t be so quick to assume city hall folks are ripping us off, don’t be so quick to assume that I personnally don’t know what’s going on in my community….
so that is one association…. and how do you know the tickets had to go to YOUR association? I am not being quick to assume. You are assuming the tickets had to be given away to the association. What if the person decided to give the tickets away to the boys and girls club? What if the person in your area chose to give it away to a high school hockey team in the area, what if they gave them away to a girl’s team? What if they were given to sick kids in the hospital. It is ridiculous to think you should be notified of every action your rep makes.
Homie: Can you do us all a favor and keep your bitching about the CGames and at Tim to either the original CGames bitch, or the designated bitch at others thread? Most of us are just as annoyed at your constant return to this argument as people were at the constant Ginger fight, which is what started the bitch thread. Thanks.
Well, you are assuming the tickets went to those who are deserving, who would not be able to afford to attend otherwise. Just as you make up possibilities of where these tickets went I am assuming that those tickets stayed in the hands of those who could afford to purchase tickets. Which senario is more likely, really?And Jennie, Yes we all had the opportunity to purchase, but not everyone has the money. Do you realize that you cannot currently get a Canada game ticket for less than $175 and all other games for less than $60 per ticket? If you think we all can afford that, well, you’re just not living in reality!
Also, I know a lot of people, including the ones who run the boys and girls club, and the coaches of the high school hockey team….so wrong and wrong….they didn’t see any either.
it took me 15 minutes to call 5 differnt members of city hall. I asked them who they gave the tickets to. I then called and verified if this was true. trevor zinck – darthmouth north community center.Debbie Hum – councillor district 16 says that she never recieved any tickets, nor did any consellors. Which makes that article factually incorrect.Dave Wilson – Sackville minor hockey Darell Dexter – (president of cole harbor association)Becky Kent – Evenly given to Dartmouth Whalers, Cole Harbour bel air association Howard Epstein – Brunswick street Church.so please, make a phone call before you post anything about you hearing. Actually call all of these people. I did
People are stupid, this isnt about canada games. This is about how you are spoonfed information about media. How you think its gospel. I have shown you how exactly this article is incorrect. Lori has told me what she knows, i have randomly called 5 MLAs, i asked what they did, they gave me answers. My point? That this shit you read in the paper…… isnt as fair as you think it is. Call any of the associations i mentioned or any of the MLA’s i mentioned yourself. Matter of fact Lori, what is your juridiction and i can call your MLA too.
Sprytown…go for it! I would love to hear the crap!
I’m not living in a dream world Lori – I realize the tickets are expensive. But attending an event like this is a priviledge, not a right. Heck I’d love to go to the Eagles concert in Moncton this summer, but I can’t afford a ticket. Should I be whining because no-one’s coughing up a free one for me?
Wow, so many replies for something that doesn’t even deserve half the attention it’s been given!
Clearly it needs far more attention. The paper makes a scandal out of something, but people get fired up and think it is gospel. Stuff like this, is the reason that lots of things get messed up. See how fired up Lori was at the beginning of this thread? People take what the paper say like it is fact. How can we as a society discuss about how our politicians are doing, if the people that are telling us what they are doing, is biased and one sided? If the media is giving us the information about the people we are to vote on, do we not deserve the facts in an unbiased, non tabloid manner?