[laconic]

The Olympics are a disaster for the local economy; was reading the other day that the P-chang area had predicted all sorts of wonderful benefits arising from the games - instead, they are stuck with enormous debts and what will now be unusued or under-used facilities. You know the Winter Olympics is a dog when you saw that the city of Lillehamer in Norway, which hosted them in 1994 and has all the needed facilities pre-built, voted down even applying to host them this time.

[Bernard]

I thought the last time anybody did well hosting an Olympics was Los Angeles in 1984. It seems like any other set of games just features stories about disappointment and useless construction that has no value once the games are over.

Maybe it's time for politicians to recognize out loud that trying to host these "Games" is an expensive ego trip.

[Alberta's Child]

Boston dropped out of their 2020 or 2024 Olympic bid, too.

It's one of the worst "investments" any government can make -- which is why most Olympic games for the foreseeable future will be held in Third World dumps and in countries run by totalitarian regimes.

[Peeps47]

I kept noticing the stands were almost always empty when the camera showed them. This was true even for the gold medal hockey game between Russia and Germany. I didn’t see any big crowds.