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.
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.
- RE: amateurs. Concur. Even the non-NBA stars etc. are far from ‘natural athletes’ (funded to perform, just like the pros)
- Just like sports teams in any major city of the U.S. Taxpayers on the hook for private ventures.
IMO, we should get (MAYBE) the U.N. to vote on a few (2 Winter, 2 Summer) sites that all pay for (yeah, I know). Static sites for all to use...no need to spend OODLES of $$ for each NEW site/etc.