God Bless the IOC
| posted by Fast Company staffI breathed a huge sigh of relief as London was announced as the host city for the 2012 Olympics. My interest in having the Olympics stay away from New York is about more than my not wanting even more tourists clogging up the subway. I wonder if the Olympics can be truly profitable? Tourists pour into the city, and then what? How do we reap long term rewards of such a speculative risky investment?
Politicians promise that the Olympics pay for themselves but in recent years its been a tossup. The 2004 summer games were less than ideal for the Greek people, bad publicity and terrorism fears kept many tourists away, and security costs were in excess of $ 2 billion. Montreal is still paying for their stadium built for the 1976 games. It's not all increased revenue and
The Olympics are huge gamble for a debt ridden city that already has problems paying for its security. I don't know if London is in a better position to host the 30th Olympiad but they're welcome to it.
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Recent Comments | 7 Total
July 6, 2005 at 6:23pm
steveWhy were you relieved? Did you seriously think that New York's bid had a chance?
July 6, 2005 at 7:06pm
Jose EspositoMaybe we can have it in Afghanistan next time...they need a boost in tourism right about now!
July 7, 2005 at 9:46am
ChrisDetroit/Windsor would be an ideal place for the Olympics.
They already have many venues (pro-sports, EMU, U Michigan, Lake Michigan) so they could keep costs down.
They have an infrastructure that can handle tourists, and a declining population that wouldn't be adversely affected like NYC (what a dumb idea!)
Combine w/ Windsor and you have a true International Olympics.
I wonder if Detroit will ever get its local politics in order to give it a try.
July 7, 2005 at 12:02pm
KharmsC'mon, Baghdad had a better chance of winning it than NYC.
July 7, 2005 at 1:06pm
JasonLodon is a nice city. Love it. Hate to know that many people were killed and injured by the bombing.
July 7, 2005 at 4:04pm
Andreas TriantafillidisThe greek people are mostly happy to have had the Olympics in Athens ... yes we have a cost to bear, but more than 8 out of 10 people here wanted them to happen
I agree that New York on the other hand does not have much to gain from the games ... It is THE capital of the world, and can hardly attract more tourism
Sad thing about London ... both the suffering and the fact that joy of winning lasted so long
July 8, 2005 at 1:11pm
Dimitris VioletisOlympic Games 2004 in Greece was a challenge for greek people. It was not an ordinary project with specific profit, ROI etc.
Olympic Games offered great value that has to be exploited. Although many tourists were kept away, citizens of Athens were so close and active than never before. It was the first time that our Ancient Greek Ideals were massively transformed to way of life. I think that the most important "profit" of the Olympics was its power to motivate the change of greek people's behaviour.
It needs great support and discipline to turn the value into (economic) profits.
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