We should host the Olympics in the same place every time
washingtonpost.com
We should host the Olympics in the same place every time
1–10 of 127 posts
Re: We should host the Olympics in the same place every time
#2'How about selling a permanent site in Greece for the Summer Olympics ? An uninhabited island would be ideal, not too far from the coast accessible by ferries as well as planes.'
'The original Olympics was held in Olympia, Greece for 800 years. The changing site is a modern phenomenon used to spread support in the early stages of the modern Olympic movement. Why not return the Games to their real roots?'
Good arguments (if ever that would even matter to the people in charge ;-) and great idea.
Re: We should host the Olympics in the same place every time
#3I think this is a piece of learned trolling, satire designed to provoke us into thinking hard about what the IOC really is.
The IOC profits from the selection process as much as it does from the games. The bribes, the payments, everything involved in this horrible “competition” fills their coffers with money.
If the games were held in the same place every year, there would be no bribes to rig bids. There would be no construction companies and other contractors to pony up black bags full of money to ensure their place at the trough.
There would also be no pressure on governments to pretend the games are a success. Every country hosting the games is under enormous pressure to brag about how wonderful the games are. They spend hundreds of millions promoting the games that they spend billions supporting.
All that would go away if the games were held in a permanent facility.
Re: We should host the Olympics in the same place every time
#4'How about selling a permanent site in Greece for the Summer Olympics ? An uninhabited island would be ideal, not too far from the coast accessible by ferries as well as planes.' 'The original Olympics was held in Olympia, Greece for 800 years. The changing site is a modern phenomenon used to spread support in the early stages of the modern Olympic movement. Why not return the Games to their real roots?' Good argumen…
It's hard to imagine that prime real estate like that would be "uninhabited".
Re: We should host the Olympics in the same place every time
#5I'd be all for it. A permanent site can rely on repeat business and a permanent economy can grow around it. A sort of Mecca for sports.
The current process is a shambles. It's basically about telling the world how prosperous the host is, and for the IOC members it's all about milking the process for money. You end up building a ghost town someplace every four years at huge cost.
I suppose the same arguments apply for the winter olympics. They have mountains and snow in Greece too, so how about building twin sites?
Re: We should host the Olympics in the same place every time
#6Or alternatively, why must the Olympics be held in one place at all? The infrastructural burdens of large events are massive. The World Cup distributes this burden throughout cities and even regions.
Re: We should host the Olympics in the same place every time
#7I'm sure the IOC will be all for greatly reducing its massive profits and increasing its now nonexistent costs!
Re: We should host the Olympics in the same place every time
#8'How about selling a permanent site in Greece for the Summer Olympics ? An uninhabited island would be ideal, not too far from the coast accessible by ferries as well as planes.' 'The original Olympics was held in Olympia, Greece for 800 years. The changing site is a modern phenomenon used to spread support in the early stages of the modern Olympic movement. Why not return the Games to their real roots?' Good argumen…
It's hard to imagine that prime real estate like that would be "uninhabited".
'Greece has an extremely large number of islands, with estimates ranging from somewhere around 1,200 to 6,000, depending on the minimum size to take into account. The number of inhabited islands is variously cited as between 166 and 227.'
Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_islands_of_Greece
And it would not even have to be uninhabited I guess. Greece is very poor and really needs any investments it can get (as is in the article).
Given the size of Greece (incl the islands) everything is nearby. With a budget of billions it would not be a problem to spend (only once) some money for a new airport (I guess now its spend every four years in some city to modernize their nearest airport).
Re: We should host the Olympics in the same place every time
#9Earlier quoted context omitted.
It's hard to imagine that prime real estate like that would be "uninhabited".
'Greece has an extremely large number of islands, with estimates ranging from somewhere around 1,200 to 6,000, depending on the minimum size to take into account. The number of inhabited islands is variously cited as between 166 and 227.' Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_islands_of_Greece And it would not even have to be uninhabited I guess. Greece is very poor and really needs any investments it can get…
Well, an island only makes it really expensive for people to visit that place because there can only be so many people in that island. Making it an inland city will at least remove one constraint.
Re: We should host the Olympics in the same place every time
#10I think this is a piece of learned trolling, satire designed to provoke us into thinking hard about what the IOC really is. The IOC profits from the selection process as much as it does from the games. The bribes, the payments, everything involved in this horrible “competition” fills their coffers with money. If the games were held in the same place every year, there would be no bribes to rig bids. There would be no…
That's a really excellent point. As I was reading it I thought maybe the author didn't really get why the IOC exists, but your suggestion, that this is mostly satire, makes way more sense.