Why do cities want to host the Olympics, anyway?

[yllus]

For cities like mine that desperately need transit and venue upgrades but can't get the political willpower together to pay for it, it's a good excuse to get things moving.

 

[Pacfanweb]

I've been asking this same question for years now.

There's no way the tourist income makes back the money that cities spend on the Olympics.

It's ridiculous, really. They ought to just have about 5 locations around the world that the Olympics rotates to and quit building all this new stuff that just wastes money.

 

[K1052]

And according to some community activists, Chicago's hope for the 2016 Olympics was to relocate black people out of the main downtown city area.

Which was totally incorrect since the only significant property demolished in preparation for the bid was a closed hospital. The CHA plan for reform (tear down high density public housing and rebuild mixed income and scattered site) had its origins in the late 90s.

 

[StrangerGuy]

Because the 1% and their political cronies wants more pocket money.

 

[Perknose]

The Economist has this to say as to why:

The main reason cities want to host the Olympics is that, perhaps against the odds, they are wildly popular with the voters who foot the bill. The IOC found that public support for hosting the games was around 70% in Tokyo, 76% in Madrid and 83% in Istanbul. Londoners, sometimes a cynical bunch, were in favour of the 2012 games, in spite of dissent from some quarters (including this newspaper, which recommended leaving it to Paris). At the end of last year, with the crowds departed, eight out of ten said it was worth the extraordinary cost, even as cuts to public services began to bite. Popularity aside, Olympic bids often have other agendas. The Beijing games were intended to show off China’s spending and organisational power. London’s games were a means of bringing back to life a poor part of the capital at a speed that defied normal budgets and planning regulations. Tokyo hopes the 2020 games can gee up Japan’s lacklustre economy.

 

[sactoking]

The people here all want to make a bid to host the winter olympics. I'm totally against it because every study has shown that even though the winter olympics is relatively low-cost (snow is generally free) it's still a money losing proposition once all of the subsidies are paid. See, that's what they don't tell you, is that the IOC demands pretty much everything be subsidized.

 

[Vdubchaos]

Companies that will profit love it and they usually have power to get Government to spend money to support it etc

😎

 

[ipown1337]

I actually do not like sports, but there is something special about the Olympics for me. I think that hosting the Olympics builds a sense of hopefulness that make people feel proud (in a good way). It also offers lot of advertisement for the city and country, it should be imprinted in peoples minds enough that it will impact business and interest for years to come (perhaps Toyota will use this opportunity to make their cars less dull *this excludes te toyobaru). Having visited Tokyo in 2009 I don't think that they'll have any trouble with transportation, I don't speak Japanese but i got around fine, i had never been to New York so i went in 2010 and 2011, i was frustrated both times because having seen Tokyo first the transportation system in NYC did not make sense. I'm actually looking to go back next year to share the experience with my wife, we might just start saving to make it back there in 2020. If you have not visited Tokyo I will say that the trains are not always packed and it doesn't have to be expensive.

 

[Veliko]

Because the Olympics is fantastic.

I live in England and London 2012 was an immense summer.

 

[mmntech]

For cities like mine that desperately need transit and venue upgrades but can't get the political willpower together to pay for it, it's a good excuse to get things moving.

Yet the Pan Am games have not done this. I'm wagering things will not go smoothly in 2015. A lot of the buildings like they velodrome they're building in my home town will most likely turn into big white elephants.

For Toronto too, at least when they bid on the 2008 games, I think it's a prestige thing. The city wants to feel like it's world class. They've really only got TIFF, which is about most of the international attention they get.

 

[dabuddha]

 

[IronWing]

From real estate pumping to construction contracts to service concession contracts the opportunities for corruption are unrivaled. It's better than war.

The Snow Queen by Joan Vinge provides a most excellent, if perhaps unintentional, satire of the IOC.

 

[uhohs]

All this talk of who's going to be hosting the Olympics in 2020 (It's Tokyo, by the way) got me thinking... why on earth would a city want to host this?? It's going to cost them billions of dollars to build new sports facilities and improve their transit and security for the event, and they'll be stuck with a bunch of special purpose buildings that they'll probably have have no use for after the event is over. Just look at all of the abandoned Olympic buildings in Beijing... it's really depressing.

Are the bragging rights really worth that much for the tourism dollars??

Implying Tokyo is Beijing and Chinese. :hmm:

http://gizmodo.com/tokyos-clever-plan-to-retrofit-1964-olympic-stadia-for-1277311713

Tokyo's bid is a smarter, leaner vision of what's traditionally expected of Olympic host cities. Rather than building entirely new venues, they'll retrofit existing structures throughout the city—including the same stadium built for the 1964 Games

Two other 1964 venues (Nippon Budokan and the Tokyo Metropolitan Gymnasium, seen below) will also be used for the 2020 Games, and thanks to Tokyo's excellent transit system, the city won't need to invest much in new train and bus lines.

There will also be dozens of new structures built, but almost all of them will be wedged into downtown Tokyo to reduce transit times and energy costs. A compact Olympic Village will be built on Tokyo Harbor and, when the Games wrap up, it will be converted into housing.

 

[preslove]

Several years ago, I was invited to be part of the technical support team for a group that wanted to bring the Olympics to my current home town.

I declined.

Government officials can't resist things like the Olympics. Hundreds of millions of construction contracts that they can steer to their friends.

If you have the right political, or media, connections there is lots and lots of money to be made hosting an event like that. Hospitality industries, hotels and restaurants, make out like bandits.

For the average citizen, there is raised taxes to pay the bills. Not to mention years worth of construction, and other, inconvenience.


Uno

Yup. Average citizens who want the olympics are idiots.

 

[Sonikku]

For countries, the Olympics represent a means to send a message and a big middle finger to rival countries. To that end, hosting the games in your native country has a proven bonus in scoring the most gold medals.

 

[BladeVenom]

Politicians don't care how much taxpayer money they spend, as long as it benefits them.

 

[zinfamous]

that and world cup is forcing them to clean up gangs and slums... or at least appear to.

they've been pushed to the outer towns and villages. Crime now existed where it never did before. Already becoming a huge problem for the locals. The state, and the city response: "meh."