As if I don’t have enough to complain about, FIFA‘s coming to Vancouver to fuck us all up. I’m really not as much against fun as I seem, but I’ve cancelled all reasons to go into Downtown Vancouver this summer. Family and friends know this. I left the country when the Olympics came to town in 2010. I did buy a pair of red mittens from some Olympic vendor before I left (The Bay?), but that’s about it. It’s the only souvenir I have.
On the other hand, unless you consider roadwork to be “excitement”, there is no excitement around here. World Cup? What World Cup? It’s wall-to-wall roadwork to double your travel time to anywhere. Events have had to be cancelled or moved city-wide if they conflict with FIFA. Anything that FIFA could mistake for competition is not allowed, so don’t even think of putting something up that might indicate you you’re excited, because the FIFA police will make you take it down.
And if you’re the BC Sports Hall of Fame, well, you have to move out of your premises because FIFA needs them as a media centre. How fucking ironic. If you’re a sports hall of fame, you have to shut down and move everything into storage lockers because of the almighty buck. There’s nothing you can do. Propose that FIFA do something with the Hall to promote sport in BC? Not a fucking chance. What’s in it for FIFA? Goodwill with the local Vancouver sports community? How much is that worth? Unless it’s a few million dollars to contribute to Gianni Infantino’s bottom line, no thanks. Just move into a storeroom for a couple of months, don’t complain, and keep your nose clean.
I have zero respect for the Olympics, FIFA and any other massive sporting body that just rides roughshod over the locations that they pick to milk dry of our tax-payer dollars. Zero. Nada. Nothing.