Quote: (04-03-2012 01:35 PM)Timoteo Wrote:
Interesting point re: infrastructure. London will be one of the few Olympic host cities to actually take advantage of the additional infrastructure and venues that were built for the games. That's more because they already had a solid infrastructure in place to start with. Most countries, after the world leaves, get absolutely NO use out of the infrastructure. Most of it crumbles from neglect. Obviously transportation and housing that was built is used, but little else. I imagine Vancouver gets plenty of use out of the venues built for the winter games, because they engage in those kinds of activities daily anyway. Atlanta also got great use also (the Olympic stadium was converted to the Braves' new ballpark right after the games), but again, it was a city with good infrastructure to start with, and there was already a plan for post-games.
I hear you regarding police/military/security. Granted, that's a reaction to the post 9/11 world, where any event that draws that amount of people presents terrorism concerns. Then put it in a city that already was security conscious (yeah...those cameras. NY has sent law enforcement there to study and observe the CCTV system, and we have a few of those cameras throughout the city), on top of having some terrorist incidents in the past, you have the perfect storm for that police state you refer to. Hosting the games can be a blessing and a curse. NYC really tried to get them. Mayor Bloomberg laid out a plan for a new stadium (which would have been the Jets new home stadium after the games) on the West side of Manhattan. More were against the games than for them. One good thing that grew out of it was construction to extend one of our subway lines (the #7 line) further West towards the Hudson River, the first line to extend further west than 8th Avenue.
I hear you for sure. As far as Vancouver goes some of the venues .. well umm are not really getting used much. The biggest flop was the village which was flipped into Condos post games and they have not sold as well as intended, the taxpayers had to bail out the developers on that one.
Atlanta was one of the most profitable games in history but it came with a price as Atlanta sold its soul to become a corporate whore. They we're easily the most corporatised games in history, evrey inch of the City was covered in ads.
I feel some Cities are to big to host the Olympics. It sounds odd to outgrow the largest sporting event on earth - but Cities such as London, Paris, Tokyo, and NYC IMO get no
real benefits from the games. These are leading Cities with proper infrastructure for the most part already built. London pumped most of the cash into security to keep its frustrated population at bay lol. Most of the venues we're built already or they built temporary ones. The biggest plus for the London game is that they are re-developing a previously neglected part of town (South or West London??).
This is why IMO the NYC bid flopped. NYC taxpayers saw little benefit of hosting the games other than a big fat bill and chaotic traffic for 2-3 weeks. Contrast this to Rio which by 2016 will transform its self into a modern City with new transit and highways and buildings. The IOC knew London's oligarchs could squeeze as much money from the public purse as needed to host the games.
This will be the last hurrah for the Olympics in the "West" Western nations can't afford to put on this spectacle anymore. Imagine Obama trying to justify America spending 2-3 Billion on the Olympics when the country has been in a economic comma for a few years now. The next 4 -5 games IMO will be in 'BRICS' nations, Eastern Europe/FSU, or the Middle East. These games will be a last show of fluff and might for the old London oligarchs from The City lol.
Only western place that gets a free pass is Toronto. For my City it would justify the cost/bill because Toronto makes up about 12% of Canada's GDP but Federal policy purposely neglects the importance of Toronto and robs it of funding and taxes. Toronto for example has the worst traffic in North America and until recently did not make any significant upgrades to its rapid transit since the 60's. The Olympics in Toronto would force the Federal Govt to invest heavily in its largest City.