$624 million. That’s the apparent tally for hosting the portion of the World Cup games to be held in Vancouver this summer – seven matches, which comes to just under $90 million per game.
We’ve written before about the excesses of professional sports, the bloated salaries, the insane hype and zeal, the quasi-religious aspect of it all. And all for chasing pieces of molded rubber of various shapes across zones or into nets. Sure, such has its purpose and place, and who does not admire excellence?
Still, proportion also has its place, ordering our lives in accord with our true and proper end – contemplation, heaven, the pursuit of all that is true, good and beautiful. Even before that, how about simple social justice and order, using taxpayer finances in a proportionate manner that benefits, say, the taxpayer and resident, and not some prima donna soccer stars, their coaches, and all the hangers-on.
There is no way Vancouver will recoup its investment. Half a billion dollars is a lot of hotel rooms, and there are reports of thousands of cancellations. Anyway, most of that money would have gone to international conglomerates. We can only hope that people – regular people who don’t play soccer, and are more interested in making ends meet, affording groceries and gas and mortgages – are waking up to fiscal reality, that money must mean something in the real world, or it means nothing at all.
