This is different from Vancouver and the 2010 Winter Olympics how?
Well, here you can pay extra for fancy licence plates for your car to show you like spending money for sporting events in town that might as well be on the moon for all the likelihood you'll be able to afford a ticket to watch (even if you hadn't just spent that money on the l.p.).
And, after using tax money to fly city councillors (not the architects, mind you) to various European locales to investigate how to build a speed skating oval (shocking conclusion: it's an oval), the city of Richmond (just south of Vancouver and part of Greater Vancouver) has decided to build this great giant oval right beside the river. Richmond, of course, is a river delta made of silt, and the entire city will vanish under water at the first slight tremor. For added fun, parts are under sea level. The oval should last maybe four or five years before its own weight drags it down into the river. Then, a couple of years as a speed-swimming oval. Then, a couple more as a fishing platform. Then, a scuba-diving destination.
Gah. Want to support physical fitness in the community? Don't throw millions into a two-week spectator event that will only encourage maybe a half-dozen people who are already into sports. Do something to help uncoordinated, deconditioned (fat or skinny, either way) kids with poor self-confidence get into some form of exercise or sport where they're encouraged and not mocked by their more athletically-gifted peers.
(No, I'm not bitter at all about high school gym class. Why do you ask?)