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We should host the Olympics in the same place every time

washingtonpost.com

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Re: We should host the Olympics in the same place every time

#61

Post by tellthetruth1 »

Gys wrote: post #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 argumen…

Yeah like they are still not corrupt enough. Let's concentrate all the money in there! Just dumb!

Re: We should host the Olympics in the same place every time

#62

Post by paulsutter »

This is a really good idea.

- Olympic construction could only be a real benefit to a permanent location

- Greece is the only logical location

- Greece could use the stimulus

I spend a lot of time in Tokyo but plan to avoid the city during the 2020 Olympics. High prices and crowds, a mess. And presently the upcoming Olympics completely distorts the market for construction, for facilities that will hardly be used after 2020.

And its a great idea to develop tourism in Greece. Assuming the Greeks like it, I'm all in favor.

Re: We should host the Olympics in the same place every time

#63

Post by yitchelle »

tellthetruth1 wrote: post #55
pakled_engineer wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The local politicians in my city that lured the IOC here through bribes were all later parachuted into lucrative foreign service diplomatic posts and various IOC connected director positions after. That's the true legacy of the games, the politicians raise their profile, network with the world's elite and move into international politics while the rest of us pay for their promotions. Having the winter olympics in Swi…

Oh yeah. Let those Europeans have it. No corruptions! No country would have an edge because no country is within 1000km radius of Switzerland.

Don't forget the quick access to their secret Swiss bank accounts... /sarcasm

Re: We should host the Olympics in the same place every time

#64

Post by dghughes »

Gys wrote: post #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 argumen…

The original Olympic games were held in honour of Zeus (God) so really the games should be held in the Mount Athos region of Greece an autonomous monastic stare in Greece.

What better place to hold games originally religious in nature from Greece than this region?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mount_Athos

Re: We should host the Olympics in the same place every time

#65

Post by 6d0debc071 »

hmate9 wrote: post #53

Hosting the Olympics also many side effects: - improved infrastructure - increased tourism - stadiums, hotels, training grounds - good way to get people into doing sports just to name a few. Hosting Olympics on a small ireland would mean we give up all of these benefits. While hosting the Olympics costs a lot of money, income from tourism and media attention surely makes up for it (correct me if I'm wrong).

> Hosting the Olympics also many side effects: - improved infrastructure - increased tourism - stadiums, hotels, training grounds - good way to get people into doing sports

I would I imagine that sinking £9.3 billion into road or public-transport improvements would have a bunch of favourable side effects too. The magnitude of those effects compared to what else could be done with the money matters.

> While hosting the Olympics costs a lot of money, income from tourism and media attention surely makes up for it (correct me if I'm wrong).

At least going by this table:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cost_of_the_Olympic_Games

8 profits 10 losses

Far from an exhaustive analysis, but as far as back of the hand stuff goes it looks like a questionable call from a financial perspective....

Re: We should host the Olympics in the same place every time

#66

Post by caminante »

rospaya wrote: post #26
Gys wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This article is about the costs involved. How do you mean 'handled pretty well' ?! I think you have no idea what you are talking about and did not bother to spend a few seconds to look for facts ? 'The cost of the Barcelona Summer Olympics was USD11.4 billion (in 2009 dollars). The cost overrun was 417 percent in real terms. This compares with an average cost of USD5.7 billion (in 2009 dollars) for other summer Olymp…

The Olympics are more than the direct cost of infrastructure or tickets sold. Barcelona was hugely changed by the 1992 Games and was transformed into one of the richest cities in Europe and one of the most visited spots on Earth. It's significance, quality of life and wealth grew because of the event. That's the point of most Olympic events, as former London mayor Ken Livingstone said it: It's not about three weeks o…

> The Olympics are more than the direct cost of infrastructure or tickets sold...

I don't think that anyone would argue that Barcelona was a success relative to other Olympics, but it still left much to be desired.

Gys is taking issue with the claim that Barcelona was handled "pretty well" in an absolute sense considering the fact that the sports-related infrastructure went WAY over budget.

Maybe things worked out overall for the economy, but I submit that incremental value from investments in public infrastructure and what sounds like capable governance made the difference. You have to wonder if these changes could've happened without the burden of financing the sports side or hosting the olympics.

Re: We should host the Olympics in the same place every time

#67

Post by Aloha »

mc32 wrote: post #40

I'm glad Boston too a stand and bowed out. I'm just hopeful SF can withstand the temptation. LA, well, it's a lost cause anyway. My hope is Boston's decision gets people to scrutinize the Olympics because as claimed, it seems the benefits are outweighed by the opportunity loss of the diverted funds, etc. For an example of the waste produced by hosting these large sporting events one only needs to look at the past wor…

Los Angeles could actually do the Olympics I without loosing money, or building all new venues, as they've hosted twice before, 1932 and 1984.

Re: We should host the Olympics in the same place every time

#68

Post by tajen »

troymc wrote: post #47
braythwayt wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s practical in the sense that it would logically work. But it’s impractical in the sense that it doesn’t actually satisfy the needs of anybody in the IOC or the bid committees that try to get tax money to enrich themselves, or the needs of politicians who want to bask in the halo of “winning and hosting the games."

When most people think of the olympic games, they don't think about the IOC. They could care less about the IOC. They think about athletes, and sports, and national rivalries. Most people would not give one fat hoot if the whole IOC got left in the dust to whither and die, while a new organization got set up to host similar events in one location.

If the IOC died, the worldwide championships of each sport would gain importance. Such championships are held in different cities every year, which makes me think that the IOC is just inheriting the behavior of moving cities. Probably 70% of the people just want to watch sports and, being a democracy, it's difficult to outweight their choice of spending public money on Olympics.

Re: We should host the Olympics in the same place every time

#70

Post by 0x0 »

braythwayt wrote: post #3

I 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…

Yep, let's have everyone compete at who's the best to beat the drug tests in one spot year on year. TV licenses are gonna go through the roof. What a business to partake in.
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