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Post-Olympic Abandonment

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131–140 of 158 posts

Re: Post-Olympic Abandonment

#131

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So Greece, for example, becomes responsible for the maintenance and updates to the facilities, which they obviously can't afford now? Having a single host country works only if all the participating countries chip in annually according to their GNP or some other measure of their financial worth. How, then, is that enforced? You can always exclude those countries who are in arrears but that only harms the athletes. Fo…

> Either that or the world class athletes would relocate to a wealthy nation, sending yet another blow to their home country. This already happens but for other reasons. Some athletes will move to a country that underperforms in the Olympics for their sport so they can qualify easier.

Heh heh. I used to work with a guy who came from a country which doesn't (or didn't at the time, anyway) send a team to every sport in the winter Olympics. As a lark the office was pushing to get him into the games in one of the skiing events (he didn't ski).

Sadly, the country in question wanted to see some evidence he could ski well, since they didn't want to be embarrassed.

Re: Post-Olympic Abandonment

#132
post #62

It seems to me that the countries that maintained their Olympic facilities (England, Australia, US, Norway, Germany, China) all tilt to the wealthier end of the spectrum. Conversely, the poorer ones, Brazil and Greece, really couldn't afford hosting the games in the first place, let alone maintaining the venues afterwards. These days, its the wealthier countries that turn down the offer to host because of the costs w…

Even in the US, cities are catching on that hosting an Olympics is likely a money-losing event, and they'll be saddled with poorly-built large facilities afterwards (why build well when you can build fast?). Permanent facilities, perhaps two or four per continent (for winter & summer games, and two have two host countries), would likely be a good answer.

It appears that only the Lake Placid Olympics lost money in the US.

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

Re: Post-Olympic Abandonment

#133

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, our most important of our corrupts are still free, and nobody is certain if they are ever going into jail (what is already a huge improvement). The good part is that it takes an entire mafia to run a country. I doubt its heads alone are powerful enough.

Well, it (Lava Jato) still hasn't reached the Judicial, plus Pezão is in hot water and Lula possibly will make a 2018 return. With all the people taken out of poverty in the early 2000s having returned to it, perhaps people will somehow want Lula back....if not, it could be Bolsonaro following Temer. So much going on.

Yet, I don't think politicians will find many complicit business people to overprice services and pass them the difference anymore. And anybody that loses an election has a good chance of going to jail (except for Sarney it seems). Does that mean politicians will fight tooth and nail? Next year will be interesting. Also, don't forget rules for Legislative elections changed last year.

The worst Judicial offenders are working hard into winning some irrelevance so that nobody will care to mess with them. I can live with that kind of result.

And about Lula, I doubt he will be free by 2018 (he's being judged right now, but it takes time), but I'm also wary of who will win the elections.

Overall, I'm optimist.

Re: Post-Olympic Abandonment

#134

Would it negatively impact the Olympics if we stopped rotating them at this point? I mean, besides the IOC missing out on the opportunity compete with FIFA on graft? Let's just locate the Olympics in a permanent facility -- Greece, if they'll have them, for tradition. I think between "not rebuilding everything from scratch every four years" and the expectation of recurring events, the single host country could both r…

All of these comments are missing the entire point of the olympics. It's like watching engineers trying to solve business problems in entrenched markets. Hint: it's not a logistical/engineering problem. The olympics as they exist today are there to enrich the members of the IOC. That's it. How are any of all of these brilliant suggestions going to enrich the IOC members? I have no idea on how solve this, besides firs…

> The olympics as they exist today are there to enrich the members of the IOC.

There is no [citation needed] big enough for this claim.

Re: Post-Olympic Abandonment

#135

Earlier quoted context omitted.

All of these comments are missing the entire point of the olympics. It's like watching engineers trying to solve business problems in entrenched markets. Hint: it's not a logistical/engineering problem. The olympics as they exist today are there to enrich the members of the IOC. That's it. How are any of all of these brilliant suggestions going to enrich the IOC members? I have no idea on how solve this, besides firs…

> The olympics as they exist today are there to enrich the members of the IOC. There is no [citation needed] big enough for this claim.

I honestly don't understand what you are trying to say.

Re: Post-Olympic Abandonment

#136

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The repeated use of the same facilities would also impact the sports. Doesn't seem to matter to the Cubs or Red Sox who both play in parks over 100 years old and are two of the most popular baseball teams. When you don't have to build them new every Olympics the facilities themselves could be much higher quality and actually be maintained.

Not age. Many events want slightly different venues each year. Marathons, sliding sports, even sailing. Adapting to the new venue is part of the sport.

Without changing venues, other facilities will immediately attempt to duplicate the official Olympic venue in minute detail.

Re: Post-Olympic Abandonment

#137

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The olympics as they exist today are there to enrich the members of the IOC. There is no [citation needed] big enough for this claim.

I honestly don't understand what you are trying to say.

S/he's saying you need to have strong evidence for such a strong claim.

Re: Post-Olympic Abandonment

#138

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I honestly don't understand what you are trying to say.

S/he's saying you need to have strong evidence for such a strong claim.

The "strong claim" that the IOC is corrupt?

Really? Have you been following IOC news for the past two decades? Everyone knows they're corrupt, but they do own the Olympic brand. The brand is doing great, but the organization that runs it is rotten to the core.

If you really do need a URL, feel free to start here: http://google.com/search?q=olympic+corruption

How do we fix this? I really can't think of a way to do it besides abandoning the term "olympic".

Re: Post-Olympic Abandonment

#139
post #76
post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How long will 'TV right' be worth billions?

Well, "streaming and broadcast". So far the content owner has been super aggressive about policing their intellectual property they paid for the exclusive right to distribute. Of course, geography keeps interfering with the ideal case for consumers. So we all lose as usual.

I was quite delighted with the Rio Olympics in terms of accessibility: streaming gave on-demand largely/completely commercial-free to some 6,000 hours of content (live & replay). Only quirk was having to AirPlay it from my iPhone to my Apple TV, and it may have leveraged some rights with AT&T/U-verse for otherwise free viewing.

Re: Post-Olympic Abandonment

#140

Would it negatively impact the Olympics if we stopped rotating them at this point? I mean, besides the IOC missing out on the opportunity compete with FIFA on graft? Let's just locate the Olympics in a permanent facility -- Greece, if they'll have them, for tradition. I think between "not rebuilding everything from scratch every four years" and the expectation of recurring events, the single host country could both r…

All of these comments are missing the entire point of the olympics. It's like watching engineers trying to solve business problems in entrenched markets. Hint: it's not a logistical/engineering problem. The olympics as they exist today are there to enrich the members of the IOC. That's it. How are any of all of these brilliant suggestions going to enrich the IOC members? I have no idea on how solve this, besides firs…

That's overly simplistic. Other influences include the geo-political power play and prestige, the marketing opportunities for global brands, athlete and sport fans wishes, etc.
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