Man, England wanted the Olympics bad enough to tax its people billions of pounds for the privilege. I mean yes there is a prestige factor with things like the marathon going by Big Ben, but is it worth that much? Why are countries paying to this tune to host it? Why aren’t the nations of all participants chipping in no matter where it’s located?
Well how about that? When the West collectively decides to slight Gods chosen people things don’t turn out as rosy as you expect them to be.
The final 3 for the Summer 2020 games; Madrid, Tokyo, and Istanbul.
I am surprised Seattle was not involved.
Mostly the olympics has been a blight upon all the places that have run it.
I’d like to see the IOC dangling from their five rings.
Let’s see, there’s a global financial collapse, the european union is on the rocks, and they put on a show celebrating their godless socialist state, with lots of condoms so the athletes can fornicate like rabbits. How’d that work out? The amusing part is that it took “experts” to determine it was a bust, with the taxpayers picking up the tab as usual. If england was a fast food joint, it would be called “home of the moron”.
The benefits of the Olympics are more than merely economic. They have been a great morale booster in my opinion, and have lifted the spirits of the nation.
Before the games, there was an almost universal, pervading cynicism in this country that it would just be one big expensive screw-up, that Team GB would not do well, and that we would all embarrass ourselves in front of the world with a poorly-organised shambles.
It hasn’t turned out that way, and the overwhelming majority of people in this country believe it has been an outstanding success, and I believe that it has reinvigorated Britain with a ‘can do’ attitude again instead of a ‘Oh, its all going to go horribly wrong, whats the point?’ attitude that is pretty much the hallmark of British self-belief these days. This boost in attitude is sorely needed in these dark times..
It might be an Athens 2004 redux:
http://io9.com/5931898/eight-years-after-the-athens-olympics-many-venues-have-been-left-to-rot
"The Greek embassy estimated that it cost Greece €8.954 billion to host the Summer Olympic Games in 2004, including the construction of the Olympic Village and several shiny new athletic venues. Since then, though, some of those venues have been abandoned, making one Olympic legacy a set of decaying structures."
That's all that matters.
Is it true that the Salt Lake City Olympics turned a profit? I thought I read that somewhere.
The Olympics are best suited to tinpot dictators who want the world to pay attention to them, and who can extract the funding from their subjects. China, for example. Free people should avoid hosting like the plague.