Speak for yourself. LA can't pull it's bid fast enough as far as I'm concerned.
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Soaring cost of Japans 2020 Olympics
- Thread starter Blablurn
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Speak for yourself. LA can't pull it's bid fast enough as far as I'm concerned.
Spiral Insanity
Banned
This is ridiculous. It is nothing but a scam for politicians/contractors to make insane money leaving the country in debt.
They are almost fully staffed by volunteers during the events. Can't spare a few extra million to give them minimum wage at least?
Fucking bullshit.
No, that isn't a valid excuse.
They are almost fully staffed by volunteers during the events. Can't spare a few extra million to give them minimum wage at least?
Fucking bullshit.
No, that isn't a valid excuse.
titiklabingapat
Member
Most of Angelenos want it. It will accelerate many of the transit upgrades in the metro area.
Spiral Insanity
Banned
At triple of the cost that it would usually take, and half of the quality.
Austriacus
Member
They better not fucking make me move all over the place for events, just make sure archery and swimming are close and we good Japan.
Then I can only assume most Angelenos are ignorant to how corrupt and petty the IOC is.
hobblygobbly
Member
People should vote on Olympics, in Germany last year Hamburg voted against having the summer games in 2024 because money could be spent better elsewhere for the public. It seems over time more and more people realise the detriment the games are having.
Unknown Soldier
Member
I don't think California has that kind of money. Maybe they can get Elon Musk to fund it.
Which is only half the truth. You can do both at the same time and achieve great results. I lived in Hamburg last year and is well aware of the arguments for and against hosting the Olympics. There are plenty of good articles documenting the positive effects it had on Barcelona because they went beyond creating venues to the point of revitalizing the city. As a result it is now one of the top 10 destinations in the World based on visitors.
Regarding LA: http://www.latimes.com/opinion/liva...urbank-barcelona-olympics-20151005-story.html
Their direct revenue fell far short of what they actually spent, the rest of their "profit" comes from harder to measure long term impacts. It's generally agreed by economists that the report released after the London games was probably too optimistic. We know, for example, that the impact on tourism was not as strong as was originally claimed, and that venues built for the olympics which were supposed to remain operational following the games have fallen into disuse.
In any event, when you are talking about how a city spends $15billion, you shouldn't judge it as a success or failure based on whether or not there was a profit. Of course you should make a profit when you invest that much money over a decade plus. You should be measuring it based on the opportunity cost of investing that money in other more traditional ways.
Randy Monk
Member
Fuck the IOC.
On a corruption scale, just below Fifa.
On a corruption scale, just below Fifa.
titiklabingapat
Member
Yes we do. We even had a profitable Olympic game last time we hosted it in 84. The profits from those games continue to fund sports programs for underprivileged kids today.
The Olympics would be a perfect reason to showcase the changes that have been happening in LA over the last twenty years, and the complementing urban infrastructure projects would just be icing on the cake. If anyone can duplicate the impacts the games had like it did on Barcelona, that would be Los Angeles. After all, we have done it before. Twice, even.
SoRuffShoNuff
Member
You could come up with tons of ways a city could use those billions of dollars but in the end all you would be doing is daydreaming. The city wouldn't have raised or spent that amount of money on anything without the Olympics. No city is going to say hey instead of building billion dollar stadiums let's put 15 billion dollars into education and transit. Well they may say it but they won't spend the money.
DaMasta113
Member
Rio just had this. Yet all that publicity makes me NOT want to visit Brazil. The horribly polluted water, crumbling infrastructure and public services. The violent crime. Those were the things highlighted leading up to the Olympic games.
All those billions spent to create stadiums and arenas that were used for about three weeks.
It pisses me off that at the end NBC was like "Oh wow, Rio pulled it off and hosted a great Olympics." What about the aftermath? The economy is still in the shitter. Millions of citizens are suffering. There aren't any jobs. My neighbor is Brazilian. He had to leave Brazil because there was no work for him. He's a skilled construction worker. Good at his job. He was so mad about the situation there. Not anymore though. Now he's just sad because he wants to go home but there's no way for him to make a living.
And all for what? So we can be entertained for a couple of weeks? I'd rather the Olympics cease to exist.
The olympics needs to improve, not go away. I think it still serves a good purpose in uniting countries, and bridging our differences. These things don't show up in the immediate reports following an olympic, but I think they are valid.
This is basically the fault of the last few Tokyo governors being totally corrupt idiots. (Ishihara and Inose, in particular) Then you got the Japanese Olympic committee also being full of morons, it's a perfect storm of bullshit.
They're (Tokyo government) also in a shitload of trouble over some other construction related shit they pulled regarding the Tsukiji Fish Market. Shitloads of taxpayer money basically being thrown away on these absolutely massive projects, probably to line the pockets of the construction lobby.
Maybe if they had someone who wasn't a total moron (or wasn't being paid by the construction lobby^H^H^H^HYAKUZA) in charge they might have been able to keep it somewhat within the ballpark. If I lived in Tokyo I'd be pretty fucking pissed about the whole thing.
They're (Tokyo government) also in a shitload of trouble over some other construction related shit they pulled regarding the Tsukiji Fish Market. Shitloads of taxpayer money basically being thrown away on these absolutely massive projects, probably to line the pockets of the construction lobby.
Maybe if they had someone who wasn't a total moron (or wasn't being paid by the construction lobby^H^H^H^HYAKUZA) in charge they might have been able to keep it somewhat within the ballpark. If I lived in Tokyo I'd be pretty fucking pissed about the whole thing.
You honestly expected them to say anything else given that they've paid $12bn to secure exclusive rights in the US?
That absolute zero temperature containment facility below the stadium to store the remains of Akira isn't cheap.
http://www.hbo.com/real-sports-with...s/july-on-real-sports-with-bryant-gumbel.html
Given it's recent, how anyone can support the IOC and their Olympic Games is beyond me.
Given it's recent, how anyone can support the IOC and their Olympic Games is beyond me.
Which "developing nation" hosted the summer olympics?
2016 : Rio
2012 : London
2008 : Beijing
2004 : Athens
2000 : Sydney
1996 : Atlanta
1992 : Barcelona
1988 : Seoul
1984 : Los Angeles
1980 : Moscow
1976 : Montreal
1972 : Munich
Should I keep going? I mean it's prety much a rich western nation super club
entremet
Member
Like who? Who has made a profit?
Vancouver Olympics still the best Olympics.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news...billion-price-tag-study-says/article15036916/
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news...billion-price-tag-study-says/article15036916/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cost_of_the_Olympic_Games
A thorough assessment of the benefits of hosting the Olympics must conduct a cost benefit analysis which evaluates well the costs/benefits accrued by the larger economy outside of just considering the budget. Even then though I'm not sure how accurate such an assessment can be as it depends so much on the model being utilized and the type of data which is available and has been tracked.
Led_Zeppelin
Member
At what point people will start to wonder if such bloated Olympic games are worthy? Arguably Greece enter an economic chaos thanks (in part) to the Olympics of 2004 and it there seems to be that Brazil will be paying the last games for decades.
When do we stop this nonsense that only makes money for a few and leave countries in debt and sometimes facing financial issues with useless infrastructure?
When do we stop this nonsense that only makes money for a few and leave countries in debt and sometimes facing financial issues with useless infrastructure?
Looking forward to the Olympic games in Pyongyang.
Nikodemos
Member
Those two are interconnected. The construction lobby is so powerful because it employs an enormous amount of people (many of them middle-aged, blue-collar who would have no other job prospects). There are some articles on the net about how the construction lobby's continuous teardown/rebuilding of housng is a factor in Japan's perpetual economic depression. And the mafia is obviously involved, since unlike pachinko/pachislot/whatever, construction provides a fully legitimate front and brings in more money (and they can count on the self-interested support of a large number of people).
Developing nations don't really exist anymore when you look at the statistics.
Also don't we get this article before and after every single Olympics? From memory the only recent one to turn a profit was in Sydney.
I can't even remember the last time a dictator held the Olympic Games.. I have to go as far back as Berlin 1936
These feel less like cost overruns and more like working as intended. One of the main goals for this (and likely most other) Olympic bids is to shovel excessive amounts of money into construction companies. And construction companies in Japan are highly tied to the LDP which makes it all the more likely that there's a fair bit of collusion going on. On a general note, Olympic bid committees are going to low-ball the costs of running a Games to make it more palatable to their home countries; however, like with military procurement the numbers they come up with are mostly make believe so the actual costs are always going to be much higher.
IIRC the Olympics are already finding it difficult to find hosts for the next few games. A lot of cities have cancelled their bids citing governmental and residential concerns over the expense the Games can be.
freeofgreed
Member
Brazil is almost universally considered a developing country. I get your point though.
Patrick Bateman
Member
Germany did pretty much this for the WC 2006.
andythinkpad
Member
Something something increased pregnancy rate.
entremet
Member
orthodoxy1095
Banned
Oh yeah, it's really a whole package. They sell these countries on this idea that they can use the Olympics to redefine a city and rework critical infrastructure and build new things like housing which can be repurposed after the event. They also sell them on the idea of the event bringing their country notoriety and prestige that will attract tourist attention and overseas investors. It all feeds into it.
And sometimes, it can work. And a lot of times, it doesn't.
It certainly didn't help. I feel like the infrastructure stuff like the new metro and airport were worthwhile investments, but the rest of the Olympics were a gigantic waste. The metro in particular is pretty great if you're ever in Athens. The problem is that so many venues (most of them actually) though went unused afterwards because they didn't have a plan for what to do with them. Not only that, but even if they had plans, they probably wouldn't have been able to afford them. The "infrastructure modernization" thing really only works well when you have a strategic plan on how to build off of the Olympic and the money to do so.
In fairness to the Greeks, I think what happened there is typical in terms of debt and how the IOC screws everyone. They spent a bajillion euros to put on the event, the IOC generated a bajillion euros in revenue and then the Greeks got nothing back from that revenue.
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