Posted on 08/08/2014 9:22:32 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
Ten years later, the 2004 Athens Olympics is a cautionary tale. Greece spent an estimated $11 billion on the Games, Reuters reports. They built all the expensive, highly specific buildings you need to host the Olympics — a village, a media center, an Olympic stadium, a canoe/kayak slalom center, etc. — and went 97% over budget in the process.
When the athletes went home at the end of August 2004, organizers learned a cruel lesson — Athens has absolutely no use for a canoe/kayak slalom center.
Many of these stadiums have become white elephants. The Olympic Village is empty, and the venues for softball, beach volleyball, and kayaking are all overrun with weeds.
With the IOC now struggling to find countries with enough money to waste on the Olympics, 2004 might be viewed as the last Olympics of an era when democratic nations saw the games as a worthwhile investment.
CLICK ABOVE LINK FOR THE PICTURES...
(Excerpt) Read more at businessinsider.com ...
awesome pictures!!
Nobody learns nuttin’. They will continue to push for Olympics in Chitcago.
i’m just glad it’s all going to be different in Rio.
Why that country, after all the investment for world cup and olympics, will be booming for the next century!!
Why not make them like the moving carnivals and just re-use them?
Looks like it’s time for another Athens Olympics —
lot of money spent and for what?
Vikings stadium in 2020
sort of like Detroit....
It’s all about graft, payoffs, and the skim. Contractors made money and the politicians made money. The taxpayers are left with the bill.
Same as it ever was.
A girl I work with is from Bosnia. She said the Sarajevo site is the same way.
Give the Olympics a permanent location. Then you don’t have to re-invent the wheel every 4 years.
“They will continue to push for Olympics in Chitcago.”
with the drivebyathalon being the featured event
Exactly. I appreciate that for the athletes it is a big deal. But why should tax payers foot the bill for the athlete’s moment of glory.
I do not for a moment think that this glory is somehow also for the athlete’s native country because it is simply not true. The athletes are now basically free agents that can go to another country that will pay them better.
We should also consider that home owners, farmers or business owners lost their property so that these Olympic facilities could be built. And now the land is fallow for generations to come.
This is a sin against freedom, the taxpayer and the land itself.
RE: Give the Olympics a permanent location. Then you don’t have to re-invent the wheel every 4 years.
They can rotate the locations for 4 specific sites KNOWN TO HAVE MADE A PROFIT from their Olympics.
The following Olympic sites have turned profits:
LOS ANGELES, USA
SEOUL, KOREA,
SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA
LONDON, ENGLAND
Let these 4 sites ROTATE their hosting.
For instance ( Setting aside Rio 2016 and Tokyo 2020 ):
2024 : Los Angeles, 2028 Seoul, 2032 Sydney, 2036 London and then back to L.A. in 2040, etc.
And Montreal is stuck with a domed stadium whose roof can’t be closed.
Amazing. Awful. Angry-making.
Why don’t they have Olympics in Greece EVERY time. No other country needs to waste a dime building new extravaganza venues. Put the money into sprucing up this venue, which is at least “historically correct.”
But nooooo. Chest-pounding knuckle draggers who run governments want THEIR names on Olympic buildings.
If the IOC wasn’t so corrupt part of the bid process would include showing how the venues will be used after the games. But of course they are, so they don’t really care how the venues get used even during the games so long as there’s plenty of cash and hookers.
A place like North Texas already has all the stadiums and hotels they would need, no spend spending would be needed.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.