When, in the entire history of the modern world, has a city making a deal for hosting a sports thing EVER worked out well for the city?
Studies show that hosting Olympics and WC are net costs to locations/countries that do so. This isn’t new and isn’t a surprise to anyone who did any research on it. It’s a glamor and showcase opportunity for cities or nations who decide to host it, mostly on ego, And with FIFA involved, it’s bound to be about as corrupt as fucking possible with bribes, payoffs, no-compete bids and all the rest.
Your officials let you get fleeced, as they weren’t up to the task of reviewing what they were committing to, congrats!
The one good thing that hosting big events in cities does, is force governments to invest in some infrastructure and things that they really should have done regardless but have motivation to do for that event.
Those things usually end up sitting abandoned shortly after the event because they aren’t actually needed day to day.
To give you some examples that will last beyond the tournament, in Toronto it’s the better wayfinding on the TTC (labels on exits, connection points, iconography for points of interest). For people in Vancouver it’s the new ampitheatre at Hastings Park.
As I recall, but it has been a long time, those investments are hastily made for a short term and frequently result in things being worse than they were. The things you need to host an event like that are different than what you need to live in that area.
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