Gotta love the speed at which some of this stuff gets approved, in the blink of an eye. Projects that are either urgently needed, make a lot of sense or have been in the works/plans for decades are always being redirected back to administration for "further review and analysis" $5 mil for an Olympic bid to make some people feel superior? No problem.
Ask yourself about Tourism Olympics? When was the last time anybody truly traveled to a summer or winter Olympic city specifically cause they liked what was shown on tv? Probably not many at all.
The real cost of the Olympic games these days are in the dirty details that a lot of people don't usually like to look into. If for example a LRT extension to the airport is of such significance than get the dam thing approved right away but we all know that won't happen. If it's tied to an Olympic bid, then all of a sudden it get's approved?? What a joke! This is nothing but crap for people to feel better about themselves in a lot of ways. If this was such a true economic boost from a construction, tourism and legacy perspective than cities and countries would truly be lining up to host these games.
People will always point to the 88 games as a model of how to do them right financially but the truth is a lot of true costs were left out of the final reports because the arguments were made the infrastructure was needed for the city and not the games. This is true but it also highlights the shell game to hide true costs. The 88 games were very successful but for every successful one there is are plenty of financial disasters that nobody is pointing to.
Rio: Regional area has declared a state of economic emergency to assist with public services during the games. Final results still to be determined.
Athens: The birthplace of the games and host of the 2004 Olympics. The games assisted with helping build some much-needed infrastructure but that needed to be done anyhow. The vast facilities built for the games have been rotting away for years. Some of the fault does lie with the Greek Government for this but don't forget that you don't get a choice of which venues to build, everything needs to be built and the ongoing operating costs are born by all. The most recent use for a lot of these facilities? Housing Syrian refugee's and others fleeing war-torn countries affected in Africa and the Middle East.
Montreal: Financial disaster all around. Wasn't alive then but I always hear the stories about how badly the corruption.
The list goes on but I don't have the energy to write anymore. The Olympic games are a financial gamble! Anybody who knows anything about gambling will tell you, you always hear about the winnings but you rarely hear about the losses.
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