Andrew

Purse 43822311

The Grand Illusion The Olympic Games

The Olympic Games, the coming together of cultures from all corners of the globe, pitting
countries and comrades against each other for the coveted gold medals. The Olympics
advocate for peace and unity throughout the world, the games themselves takes place
every four years in a month long tournament that shines lights onto the best athletes in
their chosen sports.

Brazil hosted the last Olympic
Games in 2016, which was
deemed a great success by the
IOC Executive Board, more than
3 billion people watched
coverage of the games, greater
association happened between
the games and key buzz words
(excellence, friendship, unity,
and diversity) they were the
most consumed games in the
Olympics history (NBC Sports
Group Chairman et al., 2016).
Sohow can something be
deemed a success when it
creates a hole in the budget of
a developing country like Brazil.
Estimates of the overall cost of The Maracana Stadium that played a key role in the 2016 Olympic Games

the games have come to a

staggering $20 Billion and yet the games themselves only brought in an estimated $3.3
Billion (Zimbalist, 2016), now I am no businessman, but to me this is not a success.

Since the inception of the
modern Olympics back in
1896 which was held in
Greece, only two
developing countries have
ever hosted the games,
Mexico in 1968 and Brazil
in 2016 (Topend, 2017).
There is a reason for this,
it is really, really expensive
to hold either form of the
games, winter or summer.
Before being granted the
honour of hosting the
games you initially have to
bid for the chance, back when Melbourne bid for the 1996 Olympics the bid alone cost $21
million (Emer, 2015).

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Now dont get me wrong, yes it is expensive, but what does hosting the worlds most
expensive competition grant you? There are many pros and cons to mega events, listed
below are a couple of the key points;

Pros
1. Encourages rejuvenation of out of date or lacking infrastructure sporting events
need continued supply of patrons, this cannot happen without a quality network of
public transport.
2. Influx of foreign visitors It is the biggest event in the world, people are going to
want to attend the events and proudly support their home countries and favourite
athletes.
3. Job creation It takes years to go from being given the green light to host the games
and the opening ceremony, stadiums need to be built and accommodation needs to
be constructed.
Cons
1. Expense as mentioned previously these events are really, really expensive.
2. Will the infrastructure be used in the future what is going to happen to the new
stadiums and accommodation that has been paid for by the government, will is still
be used or be left and forgotten about.

If I was going to spend almost $20 billion on
an event I would make sure that what I build
would be used after the event has passed, so
why is this even an issue? One of the most
recent cases of this was after the 2004
Athens Olympics which cost an estimated
$12 billion (News, 2015) since the games the
stadiums in Athens are all abandoned and
the only thing still holding them up is there
solid foundations. The reason for this was
told to me by a lecturer at the University of
Queensland in one of her lectures, she said
The Aquatic Centre in Rio the Greek government expected interested
parties to approach them to use the

stadiums, instead of actively looking for

themselves (Fairley, 2016). This is now a
big issue for Brazil their stadiums left
derelict, their pools empty and their lakes
unkempt.

Now yes I have bagged how Brazil has
handled the affair but what do the
numbers say. In 2016 Brazil saw an
increase of tourists by 4.8 percent from

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the previous year, which
came to a total of 6.6 million
people and they injected $6
billion into the economy
(VOA, 2017). Those are
great numbers which the
Olympic Games can draw.
This does look like it has had
a positive effect on tourism
of one year, that is one year
where more people came
and spent more money, but
will the trend continue,
from what we have seen in
The golf course that was built for the Olympics
Athens (which went through
an economic meltdown) no it will not help, Sydney is still Sydney, Beijing is still Beijing.

These host cities all end up falling back into the routine they once had, so is it really worth
hosting the Olympic Games, or is it all part of a grand illusion.




If you would like to view the Athens stadiums in disrepair follow this link -
https://www.theguardian.com/sport/gallery/2014/aug/13/abandoned-athens-olympic-
2004-venues-10-years-on-in-pictures

*All images in this blog have been sourced from the internet, I claim no ownership of the
photos

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References
Emer (2015). To bid or not to bid: The Olympic question. [online] The Roar.
Available at: http://www.theroar.com.au/2015/06/23/to-bid-or-not-to-bid/.
NBC Sports Group Chairman, M., Chris Curtin, V., Eduardo Paes, M., Resident,
R., Collins Injera, R. and United Nations Secretary General, B. (2016). How
do we know that Rio 2016 was a success. [online] International Olympic
Committee. Available at: https://www.olympic.org/news/how-do-we-know-
that-rio-2016-was-a-success.
News.Com.Au. (2015). An Olympic legacy for Greece. [online] Available at:
http://www.news.com.au/sport/sports-life/a-dark-olympic-legacy-for-
greece/news-story/8dcf6d1e8df9fe2e0f93ff12e74b1b72.
Ssr.org. (2017). Developing Countries | ssr.org. [online] Available at:
http://www.ssr.org/DevelopingCountries [Accessed 17 Apr. 2017].
the Guardian. (2017). Rio's Olympic venues, six months on in pictures. [online]
Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/sport/gallery/2017/feb/10/rios-
olympic-venues-six-months-on-in-pictures.
VOA. (2017). Brazil Sees Record Number of Tourists in 2016, Boosted by
Olympics. [online] Available at: http://www.voanews.com/a/brazil-olympic-
games-boost-record-tourist-numbers/3663838.
Zimbalist, A. (2017). The Olympic Accounting Muddle. [online] The Huffington
Post. Available at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/andrew-zimbalist/the-
olympic-accounting-muddle_b_11410434.html.

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