The new ruins of Athens: Rusting and decaying 10 years on, how Greece's Olympics turned into a

UK Daily Mail ^ | August 13, 2014 | Sophie Jane Evans

[C19fan]

Built as part of a £7billion project, they played host to millions of spectators, athletes and officials during the 2004 Summer Olympics in Greece. But now, ten years on, the state-of-the-art sports venues in the Olympics' spiritual home of Athens lie empty, completely unused and decaying. The Games, which cost almost twice their projected budget and used permanent instead of collapsible venues, were deemed a success at the time. However, Greece was shortly hit by the global financial crisis and, with no real post-games plan, the prestigious venues were abandoned.

[C19fan]

If you look at who wants to host some upcoming Winter games only despots are applying. The Olympics are a colossal waste of money.

[Gay State Conservative]

Unused and decaying? That describes the entire country,not just the Olympic venues.

[Lorianne]

The Olympics always leave cities in the lurch. The facilities cost way too much to begin with but it is their ongoing maintenance and operatation that is the biggest financial problem ... and what to do with them.

Boondoogle is the word.

[dfwgator]

Same thing is happening in Beijing.

That’s why it only makes sense to hold the Games in countries that have other sports that can use the facilities after the Games.

[Lurkina.n.Learnin]

Or they could have them permanently in the same place. Building a new venue every time is horribly wastful.

[Vigilanteman]

If you want a lesson on running Olympics right, look to the Norwegians at Lillehammer in 1994. Their venues were mostly natural amphitheater type settings-- a little investment in tree clearing, excavation and fencing as needed. You'll never hear them whine about being stuck for the bill, because there wasn't much of a bill.

Salt Lake City (2002) also fared reasonably well (once the corruption was cleaned out) because most of the infrastructure was already there-- world class skiing at nearby Park City and other venues, a first class university football stadium and long-term plans for a relatively limited amount of permanent construction.

You can make these events pay (or in SLC's case, at least not cost so damn much) if the planning and investment up front is reasonably done and extra is not expected to pay off corrupt governments and their union allies.

[a fool in paradise]

Sell the place to Joel Olsteen for a million dollars. The Houston Summit has to be too small these days.

[wbill]

Greek Olympic Construction ... SNL Style.

Worth a watch. :-)