Update: A new site

Just in case anyone cares how all this ended, here is a quick update as of Feb 2010 (the day after the Olympics started):

1. The South Okanagan Events Centre was built in 2008. It cost $81M, give or take.
2. As of FY 2009, it is losing about $2M per year for the City of Penticton (that is, expenses exceed revenue from all sources by $2M).
3. This $2M does not include the $200,000/year management fee the City of Penticton pays Global Spectrum.
3. The carrying costs (debt and principal) are another $2M per year.

So, in a town with a total tax requisition of roughly $20M/year, just over $4M/year, or about 20 cents of every tax dollar, is going to pay for the SOEC. Ouch! And no Olympic hockey team from any country ever showed to use the facility prior to the Vancouver/Whistler games....

Having said that, this massive cost is borne by City of Penticton taxpayers only; West Benchers were never invited to vote on the project and thus have no financial responsibility for the outcome. As an added bonus, it is a very nice facility. My boy plays hockey from time to time in the community rink (nice rink, terrible viewing area) and my family enjoys the Vees games (we billet players so get free seasons passes).

So my bottom line: The City of Penticton spent too much money on an grossly oversized facility. Due to my opposition to the financial chicanery around the SOEC and the fundamentally idiotic decision by the City of Penticton and School District 67 to tear down the Pen-Hi gym and auditorium (http://saveournorthgym.blogspot.com), I became involved in local government.

This new responsibility keeps me, for the most part, from using the work "idiotic" in a political context. But I do maintain a site for Area F of the Regional District of the Okanagan-Similkameen: http://areaf.rdos.bc.ca.