theBreaker.news Podcast Bob Mackin

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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For the week of April 28, 2024:

Canadian athletes campaigned for change, to end abuse and corruption in sport. 

They wanted a judicial public inquiry. Last December, Liberal Sport Minister Carla Qualtrough said they would get the Future of Sport in Canada Commission instead, with a deadline in 18 months.

More than four months since then, only the announcement of the $10.6 million budget. Meanwhile, the Paris Olympics are only three months away. “It’s not great timing, it should’ve been two years ago to get everything out in the open and start reform,” said Rob Koehler, the director general of Global Athlete.

Meanwhile, a decade after the Sochi Olympics doping scandal, the World Anti-Doping Agency is under fire for allegations that it covered up cheating by the Chinese Olympic swim team in 2021. It only came to light because whistleblowers went to journalists. Koehler said it is time for the governments that fund WADA to demand transparency and accountability. 

Koehler is Bob Mackin’s guest on this edition of thePodcast. 

Plus, this week’s Pacific Rim and Pacific Northwest headlines. 

CLICK BELOW to listen or go to TuneIn, Apple Podcasts, Spotify or Google Podcasts.

Have you missed an edition of theBreaker.news Podcast? Go to the archive.

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For the week of April 21, 2024:

For several hours on April 13, the world watched and wondered: what next for the Middle East and beyond?

While Israel’s war on the Iran-backed Hamas terrorists drags on in Gaza, Iran directly attacked Israel for the first time. The ally of China and Russia fired missiles and drones at the Jewish state, in retaliation for Israel’s April 1 bombing of Iran’s consulate in Syria, which killed seven Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps members. 

A politician from Vancouver Island happened to be there. Colwood city councillor Ian Ward was near the end of a trip to meet survivors and visit sites of the Oct. 7 massacre.

Ward is Bob Mackin’s guest on this edition of thePodcast.

Plus, this week’s Pacific Rim and Pacific Northwest headlines. 

CLICK BELOW to listen or go to TuneIn, Apple Podcasts, Spotify or Google Podcasts.

Have you missed an edition of theBreaker.news Podcast? Go to the archive.

Support theBreaker.news for as low as $2 a month on Patreon. Find out how. Click here.