Is hosting the olympics a good investment - Essay Example

The host city becomes the centre of world attention as hosting Olympics is a serious event and requires great responsibility. Not only this, it is a highly expensive event and the host city’s economy bears the entire burden. Hosting the Olympics is debatable and many analysts argue that it provides a great boost to the city’s economy. For example, it has been estimated that London has acquired a magnanimous economic boost with the total benefit reaching up to ?41 billion by 2020 (The Huffington Post, 2013).

The city hosting the event gets a chance of promoting its tourism, promotes sports and as a result the economic conditions improve over the long-term basis. Although, being a part of the Olympics’ legacy is desired by many countries but with the benefits of hosting there are certain points which are debatable and questionable. Olympic events are considered to be beneficial to the host country but experts have highlighted that there are many drawbacks associated with the hosting of these events which should be considered.

Cities go to extreme lengths to earn the privilege of hosting the Games. One of the main reasons is that the host city wants to gain a sense of popularity amongst the masses. And most of the times, Olympic Games are hosted with internal agendas. For example, the London games were hosted with the intention of bringing back to life a relatively poor existence of the capital. The Beijing Games wanted to represent the China’s improving and flourishing organisational power and spending capacity.

The Tokyo 2020 games intend to boost up Japan’s monotonous economic state. However, the cities have to realise that hosting Olympics is not the same as before. The London 1948 Olympics cost ?732,268 which is equivalent to ?20 million in today’s currency rate. The Beijing Games in current times have cost an approximate of $40 billion (T. W. 2013). Hence, it should be considered by the cities which are volunteering to host Olympics, quite enthusiastically, that the trends of Olympic business has changed now.

It is considered that hosting Olympics will bring a turbo-charge to the city’s economy. However an in-depth analysis reveals that this is not entirely true. Researchers have not been able to find a positive correlation between the Games and economic improvement. The city’s developers and local construction companies might benefit because of the new improvements made in the infrastructure. Moreover, the cost usually turns out to be more than it was actually bid in the first place. London bid $4-6 billion and the Games turned out to cost three times more than that amount.

Recent studies also revealed that every Olympic Games between the time periods of 1960 to 2012 turned out to be more costly than planned (Fenno, 2013). The estimate of $1.6 billion made by Athens was overrun by an actual price of $16 billion. Beijing spent $40 billion. Many cities are also left in debt rather than achieving an improvement in their economies (Fenno, 2013). Olympics Games are supported by the construction of many new infrastructures which become useless or lose their worth after the Games.

Many venues which were constructed in Athens and Beijing for the purpose of Olympic adventures are now propped up without any public use or support. Various specialized venues have to be built such as for mountain biking, Slalom kayaking, beach volleyball and shooting ranges (Fenno, 2013). Twenty one out of the 33 stadiums, sport halls, arenas and