Why Hosting The Olympics Isn't Worth It Anymore

It's no secret that it's a pricey pain to host the Olympic Games, running billions of dollars above the estimated budget. As the International Olympic Committee receives fewer bids with each problematic games, the future of the tradition is looking unsure. We spoke with Smith College Professor of Economics Andrew Zimbalist on the matter. He should know, he's written about the Olympic issues in Circus Maximus, No Boston Olympics, and Rio 2016.

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[lothean]

Create an Olympic island. All nations contribute to its construction. Then you host the Olympics there forever. It could work and be it's own government.

[hothotheat]

It’s like hosting a big party at your house. Sounds fun until you realize you gotta clean your house before AND after the party, you gotta make sure your place doesn’t get damaged, you gotta wrangle people’s kids, you gotta pray no one gets hurt on your property or you’ll get sued, you gotta order or cook enough food, etc.

[genesisp]

I don't like the idea of having one permanent host, but if it comes to that, then it should be in Greece since they started the games.

[TestTestGo]

The problem with giving it a permanent home is that it becomes less of an international event. It's nice to see different countries each time expressing their culture in the opening ceremony etc, and helps share around the home advantage.

A different solution might be to scale it down somewhat, so it doesn't need the insane levels of investment that it currently does which are virtually impossible to recover.

[ColasTeam]

I think it's funny that "the committee taking a smaller percentage of profits" was not brought up as a possible solution

[connorsouth]

Why don’t we just reuse the damn stadiums that are already in the country

[Violant]

omg it was heartbreaking seeing that they took 70% of profit in rio, knowing that brazil lost so much money to make this event happen, this is just not fair at all...

[SilkyClanger]

The London Olympics were a massive success! The entire area of the Olympic village was once a derelict industrial wasteland, now thanks to the regeneration brought on by the games it is a bustling hub with green spaces, various commercial areas and attractive residential buildings. London also made a lot of use of existing venues, structures and infrastructure which continued as normal after the games finished. Furthermore, the new venues that were build all remain in good condition and in use today. The stadium was been converted Into a multi use arena and is occupied by West Ham United football team. The velodrome and aquatics centre are open to public use and often host local sports events, and the copper box (basketball arena) is used for various events including high profile boxing matches. An excellent modern example of how to host an Olympics for the games and regenerate areas for the future.

[slab]

Just put it in Greece permanently. It was their idea to begin with, and it's a nice way to boost their economy.

[jessicaflowers]

40 billion over budget? Damn, all I want is 1 million and I’ll host it in my backyard

[Aadu]

Watching this after Tokyo 2020 games ended. It's financial burden would be bigger than any other Olympic games to date.

[BlackyberriE]

Seeing what Tokyo went through where they had to still keep the event running without viewers it seems like hosting is looking even less lucrative

[blah]

How about they quit building new stadiums and use cities that have almost everything they need.

[BobTheTesaurus]

i would have thought that the clear fix would be "Don't take 70%+ of the income"

[caesar]

So basically you spend billions to build a small city for an event that last less than a month then it’s deserted.

[joecaljapan]

Especially the COVID Olympics, Japan definitely drew the short straw on this one. This will be the most costliest Olympics in all of history.

[PLIDD]

BUILD A PERMANANT OLYMPIC CITY INSTEAD OF BUILDING EVERY 4 YEARS...

[Alurpal]

Yeah we want to use your city for the Olympics, BUT you pay for all of the infrastructure and we take 70% of the profit

[jinhunterslay]

I feel so sorry for the Tokyo Olympics for it’s unluckiness of coinciding with the pandemics

[hibbs]

Just make an olympic village in a country that has all the resources available to host and just keep it in that one location forever. It will be more sustainable because the facilities could be used for summer/winter, tourists will want to visit and use the facilities, and the athletes of said home country could use it as training grounds or something.