This definitely lends to the theory that if you build it, they will come.  Once again, the Canadian side of the equation had better get their shit together if we are going to take advantage of the money ($8 billion) that Obama has put on the table.

The minor details like cost of customs changes are petty, and I am happy tha the BC government is at least pushing for ease to allow Amtrak to proceed with its plans.  Now it is a matter of getting the federal government to shift their attention to Vancouver-Seattle-Portland over Windsor-Quebec City or even Edmonton-Calgary (which I still don’t quite understand in terms of its place on the list of priorities).

Ok, more later on in the day.  Off to Schwartz’s.

GSP will likely be the man that will front a UFC card in Toronto that should attract over 60,000 fans to the Rogers Centre.

I find it ironic that the weekend news of the Ontario government’s decision to sanction MMA fighting in the province comes in the same week that the BC Medical Association is pushing the Canadian Medical Association to advocate for a national ban on the sport.

And so while Vancouver was first to lift the ban and hold a UFC Pay Per View, it looks as though Toronto and Ontario are poised to overtake our position within the country for a sport that clearly has huge economic impacts attached to it.

The BCMA resolution is likely to have a ripple effect that needs to be addressed early rather than permeating the consciousness of the decision-making powers at both the provincial and municipal levels.

First, the BCMA is completely off base with its statements.

Take this for example:

“We’re concerned that this is a sport that’s different from many others, in that the goal is to disable the opponent,” association President Dr. Ian Gillespie told CTV News.

“We know that there is an increased risk of concussion in this type of sport with the nature of the blows.”

Let’s break this down.  First, how is it different from Boxing, where the goal is also to “disable the opponent”?  Second, how can there possibly be more of a concussion risk than in boxing, where 75%  of the blows are to the head (Muhammad Ali is in the state he is in today for that very reason).

Furthermore, with concussions overtaking hockey and football, I guarantee you that the statistics will show that there are far more in those sports than in MMA.

There are is also research that completely disputes what the BCMA is claiming.

A report from the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine Department of Emergency Medicine entitled “Injury Trends in Sanctioned Mixed Martial Arts Competition: A Five-Year Review, 2002-2007,” details that:

“During the 635 professional MMA matches, 300 of the 1,270 athletes sustained documented injuries with an injury rate of 23.6 per 100 fight participations. Most common reported injuries were lacerations and upper extremity injuries. Severe concussion rate was 15.4 per 1,000 athlete exposures, or 3% of all matches. No deaths or critical sports-related injuries resulted from any of the regulated matches during the study period. Age, weight, and fight experience did not statistically increase the likelihood of injuries after controlling for other covariates.”

The report concluded that injury rates in regulated professional MMA competition are similar to other combat sports; the overall risk of critical sports-related injury seems to be low.

Or how about this:

In the United States, there were 22,900 cheerleading-related injuries treated in emergency rooms in 2002, up from 10,900 in 1990, according to the Columbus study. The Consumer Product Safety Commission, meanwhile, reported there were nearly six times as many emergency room visits for cheerleaders in 2004 than in 1980.

Of 104 catastrophic injuries sustained by female high school and college athletes from 1982 to 2005 — head and spinal trauma that occasionally led to death — more than half resulted from cheerleading, according to the National Center for Catastrophic Sports Injury Research. All sports combined did not surpass cheerleading.

In 2005, the National Collegiate Athletic Association’s Catastrophic Injury Insurance Program found that 25 percent of the money spent on claims for student-athletes since 1998 resulted from cheerleading. That made it second only to football.

So the BCMA has no idea what it is talking about.

Furthermore, the resolution was crafted without a lot of inquiry into it:

“Citing concern for participant safety, BCMA president-elect Dr. Ian Gillespie stated that the decision to ask for a ban on the sport was “not something that had been a long-standing focus for the BCMA in any way,” adding that “it’s not something that has gone through a full policy review.“

“People are going to do these things anyway, and so by driving it underground, we’re not doing a service to the athletes and that’s where somebody is going to get hurt,” he said.

Instead of a ban, Gutman believes that regulation is the answer for protecting fighters’ health — MMA is not currently regulated on an amateur level.”

Involvement, rather than attaching stigma to the fastest growing sport in the world right now, is how things become safer and better.  Turning a blind eye to a phenomenon that is unstoppable is just stupid.

The amount of money that a Rogers Centre event in Toronto with Georges St. Pierre headlining next year could reach $30-50 million in economic spinoff for the city.

BC if now in third place of the three provinces where UFC is heading, largely because of a provincial government that is not willing to create a provincial sanctioning body (a cop-out approach) and a City that is looking to cripple the sport by unreasonable demands on insurance and indemnification clauses – far more than any other jurisdiction.

It’s time to get to work, people.  MMA is not going away.  The economic impact of an event is absolutely huge:

The Ultimate Fighting Championship’s sophomore event in Montreal set a new North American MMA attendance record with 21,451 attendees, who combined for a staggering $4.9 million gate.  The combined economic spinoffs from the two UFC events held in Montreal is estimated to be over $50 million.

A recent study done in New York state found that a UFC event in New York City would generate $11.5 million in ‘net new’ economic activity: $5.3 million in direct event spending, $1.4 million in non-lodging visitor spending, and $4.9 million in indirect/induced benefits.  This would in turn provide and $400,000 in tax revenue for New York City and $550,000 in tax revenue for the state.

Another study in Massachusetts determined that a UFC event in Boston would produce economic output of $12.3 million. provide $775,000 in tax revenues to the state and employ 600 workers.

In Las Vegas, the UFC generated $86.2 million in nongaming revenue for six events between February 2, 2008 and January 31, 2009.

If we don’t get our shit together here in BC, it might be a very long time before UFC returns to this city.

And that would be bad for everyone, regardless of whether you are a fan of the sport or not.

The numbers do not lie.

But, Councillor Geoff Meggs hopped a train down to Portland this morning to continue to pursue the idea – namely to “set agendas and share best practices” and “work to establish municipal and regional task forces on high-speed rail to coordinate outreach to key stakeholders, support local efforts, and achieve results toward high-speed rail and station funding, planning and construction.”

I expect to get a full report from the Councillor on today’s proceedings, and will report back tomorrow.

More specfically, I want to find out the validity of these assertions made by the Tyee’s Monte Paulsen in a series of pieces on high speed rail from last year:

“The truth is as hard and cold as a steel rail: Neither U.S. President Barack Obama’s multi-billion-dollar rail stimulus package nor Washington State’s long-range plan to revive passenger rail in the Pacific Northwest envisions the creation of high-speed service to Vancouver.

The B.C. Ministry of Transportation also has no plans for high-speed rail. Instead, as a direct result of years of inaction, Minister Kevin Falcon appears to have helped turn away hundreds of millions of dollars in U.S. stimulus funds that were allotted to improve track conditions north of Seattle.

The Government of Canada has specifically excluded British Columbia from discussions about the creation of high-speed rail lines in Alberta, Ontario and Quebec. And the Harper government is literally barring a Washington State effort to bring a second daily Amtrak train across the border.”

I would be curious to find out whether the cities are pushing a boulder up a steep hill when it comes to attempts at agenda setting with provincial, state and federal governments on both sides of the border.

It is one year later, and the above-linked memorandum has set out some pretty specific targets and courses of action to pursue, making this united front of civic power very intriguing.

I am also going to send Rick Antonson from Tourism Vancouver a note to find out the viewpoint on the kind of impact such a passenger link would make on a tourism sector that is severely lacking in this city at the moment.

Until tomorrow folks.

$1 million? Not quite, but a modest east side bungalow like this is still way of the price range of myself and many other potential first time buyers.

This game, which I discovered from this fascinating Bloomberg article, is silly and deliberately off in terms of the pricing for its “mansions.”  But it make a sobering prove a point.

The point is that young people – my generation of first time HOME buyers (this does not refer to condos) – have only one feeling when thinking about purchasing a home in the city of which I was born (yes, one of the few): hopelessness.

So professionals like Robert Hogue, a senior economist at RBC Royal Bank, say that “The type of price increases that we’ve seen in Vancouver are unlikely to be sustained.  There might be some downside risk to that market.”

OK.  I suppose that should provide some kind of hope…right?

Wrong.

I am much more inclined to believe to viewpoint like this:

“Cameron Muir, chief economist for the British Columbia Real Estate Assn., argues for Vancouver’s special situation, as do many in the trade. “Vancouver has had the highest prices in Canada for some time,” says Muir. “The geography is constrained. You’ve got the Pacific on the West, the mountains to the north, the U.S. border to the south, and land reserves to the east. That puts tremendous upward pressure on land prices. We also have solid population growth with a sizeable proportion of immigrants.” Vancouver is a city of just over 2 million, and Muir expects 40,000 immigrants this year. On top of that, says Muir, there are “high-net-worth Asian purchasers buying as investments, as second homes, or for satellite families.”

Therein lies the sense of pessimism that I and my wife have about living in Vancouver in the foreseeable future.

Grant Connell, the former Canadian tennis great and now a top realtor in the city, see things merely “stalling.”

The problem for someone in my position is that if this is the case, pricing will stall far above the threshold of what would be a reasonable mortgage to be able to take on.

There is a generation of young people in this city that are aiming for house in the following ways:

1. Starting small in a condo, and flipping properties a few of times to save up enough capital to make a real dent in a mortgage for a house
2. Inherit a residence from their parents or grandparents
3. Buying outside of the city in suburbs like Surrey or Langley

I know that in my situation, number 3 is the way to go, as you can still get a house with a decent sized lot for $450,000-$500,000 in Surrey.  I know…anywhere else in the country and they are horrified with kind of pricing.  Here in Metro Vancouver, however, it is a tangible bargain.

Regardless of any notion of housing boom and busts within Canada (and I am aware that housing is hot in every corner of the country these days), Vancouver is like an island that is distanced from any of the normal fluctuations the rest of the country experiences.

The beauty, the lifestyle, the fact that land is squeezed and at a premium because of “the Pacific on the West, the mountains to the north, the U.S. border to the south, and land reserves to the east,” is going to make this city always in demand.

Yes, I read the article, and watched this video, which I suppose should instill some kind of confidence that things will eventually even out and once again become “affordable.”

But at this point in the city’s history, I am having a very hard time picturing when exactly (if ever) I will be able to raise my arms and enjoy the ride down.