Posted on 02/11/2017 7:12:02 AM PST by C19fan
Rio de Janeiro pulled off last year's Olympics, keeping crime at bay and fending off dire forecasts of corruption, environmental degradation, and cost overruns. Six months after South America's first games, the floodgates have burst.
(Excerpt) Read more at hosted.ap.org ...
Who would have thought?
That also includes the stadiums they built for the last World Cup.
No one saw that coming. /sarc
The connected “insiders” probably made a boatload of money from the construction and vending contracts — which was the whole idea of being the host.
Things have gotten so bad, they can’t even afford to keep the pool the color of lime jello anymore.
You have to feel somewhat sorry for them, just not all the way.
I appreciate the idea that they wanted the pride of hosting the Olympics, and to their credit they came off pretty well.
Conversely, they mortgaged quite a bit for the privilege of a such a dubious honor.
IMHO, if the IOC wants to put these games in such places as Rio de Genaro then the IOC should fund them and the venues are their gift to the host city.
The idea that a city anywhere has to spend billions on a two week affair is silly.
“then the IOC should fund them and the venues are their gift to the host city.”
Ummm.. fine, except that I think that means the USA, which already underwrites the Olympics for a lot of third world countries, would end up building the venues, too...
The historic Maracana stadium, site of the opening and closing ceremony, has been vandalized as stadium operators, the Rio state government, and Olympic organizers have fought over $1 million in unpaid electricity bills. The electric utility reacted by cutting off all power to the city landmark.
There are few players for a new $20 million Olympic golf course, and little money for upkeep. Deodoro, the second-largest cluster of Olympic venues, is closed and searching for a management company.
The state of Rio de Janeiro is months late paying teachers, hospital workers, and pensions. The state also reports record-breaking crime in 2016 in almost all categories from homicides to robbery.
“During the Olympics, the city was really trying hard to keep things together,” said Oliver Stuenkel, a Brazilian who teaches international relations at the Getulio Vargas Foundation, a Brazilian university. “But the minute the Olympics were over, the whole thing disintegrated.
I would say that if a city (or country) didn’t already have a substantial number of the venues the Olympics required, it should not waste the time trying to bid for the event. If it already has a stadium, pools, ice rinks, ski slopes, etc., then sure, go ahead. But if you’re trying to build a world-class athletic environment from scratch, especially considering how varied the Olympic events are, you’re going to bankrupt yourself. And the fact that you don’t already have such facilities would indicate that there’s no demand for them among your own citizens, so when the Olympics are over, who’s going to use them?
It seems that every country, particularly the “less affluent” ones always spend billions and get nothing in return other than a few weeks of tourist money. Afterwards their investment and society take a beating for the privilege having hosted the Olympics. It may be time to either not do the Games anymore, or have all interested countries share the construction of a permanent Olympic village in, let’s say, Athens.
Call me a cynic, but maybe it’s time to let the Olympic Games fade into history.
- The notion of amateur athletics that seem to have been the hallmark of the games as little as 40 years ago is long gone.
- Cities and countries fall all over themselves to host the games then end up going bankrupting for generations to pay off the debt.
- With the exception of one or two venues that can possibly serve other purposes, most of the buildings, stadia and other construction is abandoned and left to crumble or outright demolished shortly after the flame is extinguished.
I used to love watching the Olympics when I was younger, as we got to see events that had little or no impact in the U.S. sporting mind, except for the odd event on “ABC’s Wide World of Sports”. But no more.
Now, we are bombarded by NBC and all 57 of its affiliated cable networks showing everything at all hours. Which means luge and curling are on PMS-NBC at 5:00AM or 2:00PM on a Tuesday, while NBC shows the NHL all-stars from USA playing the NHL all-stars from Canada during prime time. Or LeBron James and his NBA all-stars winning 150-20 against some team from Lower Slobovia. And then, the games are shown only after 45 minutes of “human interest” stories about how one of the players gritted it out through an infected hangnail.
This is rapidly becoming the sort of thing that only appeals to Third World countries.
The Olympics are being held more and more frequently outside of Europe and North America because First World cities are declining to even submit bids anymore. The next three Olympic sites are all in Asia (South Korea in 2018, Japan in 2020, and China in 2022). Beijing, in fact will become the first country to host a Winter Olympics after having already hosted the Summer Olympics (2008).
If you are going to retain the Olympics house them permanently in Greece, where the whole idea started. Particularly the summer Olympics, my impression and it may be false is the winter Olympics is less of a financial problem. By housing them in Greece you retain the history, you only need to build and maintain one set of facilities.
I agree with you. Permanently in Greece. They can use it too.
The idea that a city anywhere has to spend billions on a two week affair is silly.”
It’s beyond silly and I feel the same way about the Super Bowl after watching all the money Houston dumped into preparations instead of, for instance, spending it repairing infrastructure or addressing the homeless situation.
IMO all Super Bowl games should be in the same place every year as well as all the olympics.
Agree as well. Move the games to Greece and keep them there.
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