For the week of May 5, 2024:
The B.C. NDP government finally revealed that taxpayers could be paying $581 million to host seven FIFA World Cup 26 matches at B.C. Place Stadium.
The cost has more than doubled due to inflation and FIFA’s requirements to renovate B.C. Place Stadium.
Tourism and Sport Minister Lana Popham estimated a $1 billion tourism revenue windfall over the five years following the tournament. But one of the world’s top sports economists says that’s wishful thinking.
Victor Matheson, a professor at the College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, Mass., is Bob Mackin’s guest on this edition of thePodcast.
Matheson has researched World Cups, Olympics and Super Bowls and found they never live up to the hype from politicians and the boosters reliant on taxpayer subsidies.
“The biggest single thing that a tourist is going to spend money on in Vancouver in the World Cup is World Cup tickets,” Matheson said. “Of course none of that is going to be re-spent in Vancouver, because all that money goes into the pockets of FIFA who takes it back to Switzerland and divvies it up back there.”
Listen to the full interview on this edition.
Plus, this week’s Pacific Rim and Pacific Northwest headlines.
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