hosting the olympics

I can't imagine why a city would want to host the Olympics. That being said, the present method of selection seems fair.


Do the Olympic Games generate profits?
No. Unfortunately, they do not. That's straight from the mouth of the head of the International Centre for Olympic Studies, Robert Barney [source: Berkes]. A city might see a surplus of cash post-closing ceremonies, but if you include all those (at every level) who help fund the Olympics in any given games, he says no city has profited in the long run from its hosting role in a purely bottom-line sense. Many cities like to boast of mega-profits, but they often gloss over all the money that the federal government, among other contributors, poured in. And that tends to add up to a lot.
Although that's not to say a city doesn't benefit in any way from the Olympics. Before and during the games, local denizens gain jobs and revenues. Plus, after the Olympics, said city is usually improved in a multitude of ways (better infrastructure being but one example), and those improvements may attract further investment and development. Then, too, billions of people are exposed to a locale that they've probably never paid much attention to before. Talk about mega-marketing.
So that being said, Olympic cities do usually have an increased amount of international trade -- to the tune of roughly 30 percent [source: Berkes]. On the other side of the coin, though, lots of the Olympic-related developments can end up as future money pits. Some venues end up underused following the games, and incur lots of costs in upkeep.
By the same token, many Olympics leave a city with some serious debt. Montreal, for example, took about 30 years to pay off the debt incurred from its 1976 summer games. The original budget for the Athens 2004 games was $1.6 billion. Final tally? They cost the public about $16 billion [source: The New York Times].

From what I saw last night on the World News, Rio doesn't have a good sewer system so the water is contaminated with E Coli, and bacteria, and viruses and people are urged not to get it in their mouths, eyes, or any cuts. Several Olympians have been robbed already down there, wait til they start winning medals. And yes all the construction that goes into building the Stadiums and housing etc. etc. after the Olympics generally just goes to pot. Even in China when they built "The Birds Nest" for swimming events. Now sits empty and boarded up. They need to make a Medal, I survived the Rio Summer Games, to give to the athletes who make it back ok.

the best Olympics I've seen was in China. Plus the "rich" countries have a ton of poor people in them too. There's no way that money would ever be used to help the poor no matter where that Olympics are held, the rich are too greedy for that

doesn't matter.. what city hosts it the drain will be epic.

from what i heard many can't survive and this event strangles the economy and leaves the city in an economic rubble.

i heard some are still trying to recover.

It is not because of the poor people, it is because of the poor infrastructure. If a country has to pour billions of gallons of raw sewage in the bay that Olympic athletes will be swimming & sailing, then maybe it's not a suitable place to host the Olympics.

TexasGrandpa

I am sure that a big chunk of Greek debt that is currently destroying their economy came from borrowing money to host the olympics.

I always thought that something like this would at least stimulate the local economy. But I don't know how the taxes etc are handled.