the construction and use of olympic facilities historically always leave a deficit of some sort...............

the funding of athletes training is a grey area,,,there is no right or wrong,,,it is an exercise in the needs and wants of a nation.....according to the below source,,,the government is spending 190 million dollars per year funding various athletic program......is this money well spent???????

below is a forum entry from "discover vancouver" website..........

"I'm pretty sick of canadians saying that the reason why they don't win more medals in the olympics is that they do not have funding which is WRONG and ENTIRELY UNTRE. Below I have FACTUAL proof that the Canadian Olympic team gets more than adequate team funding. In fact it gets more funding than Australia.

We all know how well Australia has done in the last few olympic games in comparision to canada. The reason to compare the two is that they are similar nations with similar populations. You will see that the Canadian federal government has invested 166 million dollars annually into its sports system with an additional 24 million each year.

This is in comparison to Australias government which just injected a one time 135 million just after winning the right to hold the Sydney Olympics. The AOC which is Australias olympic commitee is a self funded commitee and raises its funds from sponsers. They were able to raise $30 million in the leadup to the beijing games to help their atheletes. The federal government did help the AOC by giving 10 million each year in the leadup to the games.. this is far from Canada which gets $24 million funding from the government each year, plus the additional 166 million from the sport funding program.. this does not even include sponsorship funding which is up with australias 30 millon per year.

In Australia Gold Medallists will receive $15,000, Silver medallists will receive $10,000, bronze medallists $7,500 and in a new move 4th placegetters will receive $5,000.

In Canada Gold Medalists will receive $ 20,000, Silver medallists receive $15,000 and Bronze get $10,000



Excerts from Web Sources.

Athlete Assistance Program - a fund which gives top-level, Canadian Olympic-bound athletes a monthly stipend of $1,500 per month (equivalent to $18,000 per year, tax-free) to support their training.

The Government of Canada is the single largest investor in Canada’s sport system, supporting participation and excellence from the playground to the podium. In 2008-09, the federal investment in the Canadian sport system will reach an all-time high of $166 million annually. This amount includes the Budget 2008 commitment of $24 million and an additional $24 million per year in ongoing support to Canada’s summer sport athletes through the Road to Excellence program. This provides funding for initiatives to support our high-performance summer sport athletes by increasing the number of coaches, training camps and opportunities for our athletes to take part in international competitions.

In 1994, after Sydney won the right to host the 2000 Olympics, the Federal Government injected $135 million for the gold medal plan, which targeted 60 medals, 20 of them gold. At the Sydney Games, Australia won 58 medals (16 gold) and followed up with 49 (17 gold) in Athens, with predictions of 42 to 48 in Beijing.

Australian Olympic Committee president John Coates believes Australia is lagging its major competitors in funding of elite athletes and coaches. "My sense is that we are being left behind," Coates told reporters.

He noted that the British Olympic team is receiving 1.05 billion CAD ahead of the London Games and that Britain is on course to surpass Australia as an Olympic nation.

In the budget the Minister for the Arts and Sport, Senator Rod Kemp, announced a funding boost of $55.7 million over four years to meet the international challenges facing Australian sport and help to deliver the sporting excellence now expected by the Australian public"

bulldog wrote:

here is some more numbers add up and  throw around from the China Daily

Deficit not to cut Canada's athlete funding


VANCOUVER - Canada will protect funding for Olympic athletes despite expectations of a "tough" federal budget to be introduced immediately after the Vancouver Games, the country's sports minister said on Tuesday.

The government contributes about C$47 million annually to the "Own the Podium" program to improve athletes' performance in both the Summer and Winter Games, but it is also grappling with how to close a nearly C$56 billion budget deficit.

"This is going to be a tough budget year... but as far as Own the Podium it has been so successful that we have committed some time ago to maintaining our funding," said Gary Lunn, minister of state for sports.

The new federal budget will be unveiled on March 4, less than a week after the Vancouver Games end.

The federal government is paying most of the C$900 million security budget for the Vancouver Games and half of the C$580 spent on venue construction.

All very nice Bull.....CTV paid $153 million for the Canadian TV rights, Bell paid 200 million for the communication rights, Foxtel won the australian rights at about 50 million or so and NBC paid right about $1 billion....of course there is Great Britain, Korea, Japan, China, Germany, Italy, Austria, Switzerland, France.....you get the picture...

Then there are things like transportation rights from GM....food from McDonalds and that rights purchase, same with Coke....RBC is the offical bank and of course they paid for that right. The list goes on and on...

The fact...and it is a fact...is that since LA...with the exception of Bejing and Sydney.... direct revenue exceeded expenses for the games. This does not include legacy public infrastructure......like for instance the rebuilding of the dangerous and outdated sea to sky highway as an example.

With regard to the public money mentioned in your post...160 million or so. Spread that through all the agencies that are in charge of atheletics in this country and it is a tiny portion of the total being spent. As an example, Alpine Canada's budget is in the $15 million range annually. Skate Canada, about $25 million.....Hockey Canada...more than twice that. Sure the governments contribute, but the majority of funds comes from sponsorship programs and general fund raising.

bulldog wrote:

i am not sure about the accounting but if ctv paid 153 million and nbc paid a billion then where does it go?    international olympic commitee?  canadian olympic committee?  city of vancouver?  BC?, federal government or perhaps everbody gets a chunk,,,,,

nbc's money would cover the security cost of the olympics with a little bit of a tip.......

A portion goes to the IOC the majority goes to VANOC which is in charge of the revenue, expenses and organization of the games.