“Uberroth got a break, because in 1984 security costs were only a few hundred million, a fraction of total costs.
Now, security runs over $2 billion each Games (getting closer to 3), and unlike spending on facilities - where at least you got something to keep & use after the games - you never get any of that back.”
It’s not news that “costs are higher”. Revenues are higher as well.
My point was comparing Uberoth’s private sector approach, which saved the Olympics, to other less successful ones.
And “getting a facility” is not necessarily an economic boon, they cost a lot of money to operate.
Of course everything’s higher, but if you look at percentages for each Olympics, you can see the security portion growing each time. Now, it’s almost 80-90% of a total Olympic Games budget, all non-recoverable.
The main reason is because organizers always want to hold their Games in the middle of a big city - a perfect target for terrorists.
There IS a way around that, but then the Games would have to be held either on a remote island, on bald prairie, or inside a large military base - and anything that comes near will be shot down.
But “Ft. Le Jeune 2024” isn’t very marketing-friendly ...