“Cities used to covet the Olympic Games…hosting them meant glamour and prestige”
No longer is hosting the Olympic Games a great honor for a country, but more a burden. Negotiations are currently underway to determine who will host the 2024 Summer Olympics. Rome Italy, was the most recent city to withdraw their “bid for the 2024 Summer Games,” nothing their “worries over the cost” the city would incur (Riley, 2016).
Cities hosting the Olympics are required to “plan, pay for and construct massive infrastructure projects” prior to the games taking place (Riley, 2016). Costs for “security” alone “can run” up “billions of dollars” and even “thousands” more thereafter in costs for “hotel rooms” to “house athletes and tourists” (2016). Such costs are put on the backs of the hosting countries taxpayers, who see minimal “economic benefit” as a result (2016). Those in support of hosting the Olympics, primarily “elected” officials, argue “that ticket sales, construction jobs and increased tourism outweigh the” cost burden on the country (2016). However, “economists” argue that “the real return on hosting the Olympics” is glim (2016).
Post-Olympic games hosting countries are left with the overly priced stadiums, which they see little need for after. In 2014, “Russia is said to have spent” over “$50 billion” hosting the “2014 Sochi Olympics” (Riley, 2016). For the 2016 Olympics, numerous “stadiums” were “built in Rio,” costing taxpayers billions of dollars, which are now “expected to be used only lightly” since the “summer's games are over” (2016).
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