Friday, September 04, 2015

Why would any city want to host the Olympics?

Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti really wants his city—which is now the United States Olympic Committee's official Olympic bidder for 2024—to host the Olympic Games.

"We know how to do Olympics, we know how to do them well, we know how to do them economically," he boasted on Tuesday. Los Angeles mayors can only serve two four-year terms, so whatever happens he'll be out of office during the games, but he's working hard to make this thing happen.

The City Council backed Garcetti's bid, but some council members seemed slightly less enthusiastic than their mayor. "All public fund commitments would require express, advance authorization of the council and the mayor. And as of this moment, we've made none," City Councilman Paul Krekorian, who voted in favor of the bid, told VICE.

The need for caution when it comes to Olympic bids is pretty obvious by now: Though the Olympics bring unrivaled publicity to a metro area, the event can cause some pretty serious civic damage. Athens is perhaps the most notorious case: The 2004 Olympics left the taxpayers of Greece with a debt of 7 billion euros (not including the money sunk into a new airport and transportation system), and the mess is regarded by some as a major contributor to Greece's ongoing economic crisis. When the Olympics came to Beijing in 2008, China used it as an opportunity to showcase its status as an economic powerhouse, but wound up with massive bills and headaches, along with a bunch of depressing abandoned stadiums and crumbling infrastructure. Today, some Chinese academics regard hosting the Olympics as a mistake. Full story...

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