Its funny the reactions though. Everyone not from the UK is like "fuck yea" cause the Olympics went well, London looked beautiful, etc... I immediately thought about how my friends should still be living there so I would definitely go over. But then all the comments from London/UK residents is like "fuck no. not this shit again". Cause its a massive pain in the ass and drain on the community if you're a resident.
Is there a reason that the good ole USA seems permanently out of contention for hosting? We always do well and already have facilities if the I.O.C. is looking for a last minute host.
A lot of US communities don't want the Olympics, as someone mentioned above, when it's in your town, it is an incredible pain in the ass. There's certainly an uptick in business, but not as much as you'd think (for major cities) and the extra cost for police/security/construction/shut downs/etc. is really high.
The 1984 Olympics actually resulted in decreased traffic in L.A. The powers that be "encouraged" businesses to stagger work hours and big rigs were banned from freeways in or near downtown. We went to the coliseum for one day's track and field and just sailed downtown. We even found free parking! Of course, after the games everything went back to normal, which is to say shit. Also, the '84 games were, IIRC, the first to actually earn a profit. My GF was a volunteer interpreter and actually received a nice check from the organizers a few weeks after the closing ceremony. Edit - L.A. had the games in '32 also (missed that one).
The Olympics are a mixed bag. The idea that the Olympics were ruined by the transition to professional athletes is ridiculous. In that regard, they were ruined in 1936, when Nazi Germany decided to turn a celebration of athletic spirit into a political statement. Since then, the Olympics and politics have been badly intertwined. Communist countries have always provided lavish support and coaching for "amateur" athletes, and that tradition has continued through today with China's dominance of many events that were calculated to have relatively little mainstream support (Weightlifting and shooting are the most egregious examples, although gymnastics takes a close third). I think that this state-sponsored support is far, far worse than professional athletes. I like the mix of professional and amateur athletes. Some sports are dominated by certain countries because the country actively promotes it, but there are others where it's genuinely an individual effort. The New Zealand rowing pair isn't the best in the world because of state support or a collegiate tradition; they're the best because they work damn hard and are superior athletes. Michael Phelps didn't win all of those gold medals because of his dreams of money; he got them because he wanted to be the greatest of all time. Basically, it has its shitty aspects, but I love the Olympics and avidly watch them, warts and all, whenever they come on. Just... put them in places that make sense. We're gonna have the Pyongyang games before long.
If you think the Rio Olympics are shaping up to be a shitshow, just wait for the Qatar World Cup. Over 1,000 migrant workers have already died during construction. It's especially shitty because they got the bid over The United States, which already has the infrastructure in place to host a world cup (which of our 30 professional football stadiums would you like to use? Or our dozens of college stadiums, which are basically pro stadiums anyway).
Not to mention that they're making the World Cup happen later in the year, which is going to fuck up every football league's schedule. The reason? It's hotter than Satan's asshole, and Qatar finally admitted that no, they aren't going to be able to air condition 80,000-person stadiums. It's hilarious that they're pretending that they're making a statement toward "diversity" when they're actually being corrupt as fuck. Never mind the shitshow games that will result, and never mind the economic damage that will result from having them in a place that isn't suited for a one-time event.
What i find funny is that world cup in Qatar is this is the first time they annouced more then 7 years in advance, and I am pretty sure it was either Brazil or South Korea Olypmic bids that got annouced way ahead of when they normally do.
Gotta give the host countries time to squash the poor masses that will be displaced, and they have to have time to steal the publics money to build the dam things. The more I hear about the Olympics, the more it sounds like it really fucks local populations in developing countries.
There are two kinds of countries where the Olympics are a good idea: 1. Developed countries with large professional athletic leagues. These countries frequently already have the infrastructure necessary to withstand a large number of tourists. The US is a great example of this, but England, France, and Germany are also great examples. They have massive stadiums from their football leagues, and they have experience with events that get lots of people to concentrate on single venues (championship games). 2. Relatively wealthy authoritarian countries that don't give a fuck. China is a great example of this. Who gives a fuck that no one will use the Bird's Nest after the Olympics? We're gonna spend billions of dollars to make a spectacle, and nothing is gonna stop us. Russia is another great example. Summer resort town for the Winter Olympics? Fuck you, we're doing this. The problem is when you get developing countries who don't have either; they don't have the infrastructure in place, and the sacrifices required to create it are far more than they can practically afford. Unfortunately, the IOC is so corrupt that they're willing to overlook the devastating effects on these countries in favor of diversity and new yachts that magically appear in their backyards.
Well duh, who gives a fuck about displaced peasants when your sailing around the Med on your new Mega Yacht . Monaco is soo much cooler when you have a mega Yacht than when your in an ordinary one.
Qatar is going to shit the bed on this. You have my word. The hospital I'm going to work at has been in construction for over 10 years now. That's just one building. Imagine they need to build 12 stadiums in 8 years. Granted, they are the wealthiest country in the world per capita, but that's only because of the natural gas they have versus the size and population of the country. They cannot support the amount of people who will come to visit, let alone approve all of those fucking travel visas. They do things at a snails pace. And there will be lots of dead laborers in the process.
I remember the Atlanta Olympics as being a tremendous cluster-fuck. Also, a lot of US cities learned their lesson when that bombing happened. US Olympics won't happen because no US city has the requisite billion it would take to bribe the IOC just laying around with nothing else to do, nor do they relish the idea of being a target. I think whether the infrastructure exists or not is irrelevant to the equation.
Hey, a few bucks to fix up the Ryugyong Hotel, a 150,000 seat stadium ready to go and a population of slaves willing to make it happen, Pyongyang is probably as ready to host as Rio is. And with the Mass Games, you'd get one hell of an opening ceremony...
<a class="postlink" href="http://www.businessinsider.com/2022-olympics-host-cities-2014-5?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+businessinsider+%28Business+Insider%29" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;">http://www.businessinsider.com/2022-oly ... Insider%29</a> "The final two bidders for the 2022 Olympics are Almaty, Kazakhstan — who's first and only president, Nursultan Nazarbayev, won 95% of the vote the most recent election, which was roundly criticized by international monitors — and Beijing, China." Pyongyang isn't far from the mark, apparently.
I don't see a way of it happening without the government imploding from bankruptcy and the civil unrest created by having a massive number of tourists show the peasants that the rest of the world is way better off than them. It would definitely be entertaining as hell, though.
They probably two or three decades of complete infrastructure renovations to get to first. Unfortunately, all resources are busy building Xanadus for the fat kid from Up. Watch Vice 's guide to NK when Shane Smith visits the games ceremony. They had a cast of thousands perform for two dozen random people visiting the stadium. It was mesmerizing. The shit you can do with a gun to your head.
What about Salt Lake? They came after Atlanta and had the bribe money lying around. I think what holds the States back from hosting another Olympic Games is that they've had two in the last twenty years and four in the last thirty-four. Despite the mega-corruption I don't think South Africa, Russia and Qatar getting World Cups ahead of nations that have previously hosted is a bad thing. Almaty would be a great location for a winter games. Bit on the expensive side but a beautiful part of the world.