Did Gordon Campbell Fudge His Numbers On B.C. Place Stadium?

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StadiumVille


Yesterday, British Columbia Premier Gordon Campbell announced his plans to refurbish everything associated with B.C. Place Stadium.

Everything inside, outside, and topside.

And one thing we know for sure.

He did not fudge any numbers when it comes to total cost.

How do we know that for sure?

Well, because, as we mentioned yesterday, there were no numbers.

Dollar numbers that is.

However, later, on the (nolongerso)Giant'98's 9:00pm Newscast, I heard Mr. Campbell exclaim that, regardless the ultimate cost, British Columbians would be getting good value because B.C. Place is used at least 200 times a year.

Which floored me.

That '200' number I mean.

So, I decided to check the 'BC Place Events Calendar'.

And here is what I found:

In the next 6 months, which is far out as they go, BC Place will be open for events 26 times.

Again, that's Twenty-Freakin'-Six.

Now, unless I'm a total doofus with simple multiplication, that means that in the next year BC Place will be used about 50, maybe 60, times, tops.

And, all you have to do is have a quick look at the month above to see that almost all of those dates are for crap that nobody really cares about anyway, because they are trade shows - many of which will likely disappear when they move to the new Convention Center White Elephant on the waterfront.

Now, to be fair (or NOT) there are also 39 move/in move out dates that BC Place also puts on their calendar, the most interesting of which were the 4 days it will take Madonna to 'move-in' for her concert on October 30th which, by the way, is the only concert date on the entire calendar.

So, there you have it, a stadium filled to bursting with fudge rather than butts in seats.

Which means that, unless a Major League Baseball Team suddenly drops out of the sky (ha! at the moment we are squeaking by with short season rookie ball), we will paying a whole lotta money for a whole lotta nothing.

Regardless the ultimate final cost.

OK?

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One last thing - there are a bunch of 'Conversion' days on the calendar. At first I thought that,maybe The Rapture was coming to B.C. Place. Turns out these are days reserved for changing the carpet, also known as 'turf conversion'. Ha!

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