Holli Cook
The Olympics the one event each year that every person becomes attached to their TV. We spend hours watching the events making sure to record it when it’s on to make sure we don’t miss anything. Hours upon hours are wasted as we watch to see if USA can take gold in each event. Yet the joy we receive from watching it comes with a cost. Little did we know that the money that it has taken just to host these Olympics has cost over $50 billion dollars. When deciding to host it in Russia the only look anyone saw was that they had the perfect climate right now to host it. Yet no one looked to see if the city they were going to be held was ready to host so many countries and people. The money started to be needed when Russia had to build “highway, a high-speed train line. Electric power stations and an entire series of resort villages in the Caucasus Mountains, where the alpine sport events will take place” (Watson).
Many can see this as necessary events needed to host this event, yet one cannot help but to ask or even think was the road work, new buildings being built, highways, was any of this taken into consideration when letting Russia host this event. When looking at the money that it has taken to build the Olympics over the years Russia has used the most money over the summer Olympics in Beijing that cost $10 billion dollars less. According to Think Progress Sochi Olympic will Cost more than every other winter Olympic combined said “Sochi will spend five times more than the Chinese did in 2008. Take Summer Games out of the equation and Sochi looks even worse: according to research from a Dutch newspaper, Sochi’s cost will total more than every pervious Winter Olympics combined” (Waldron). When originally looking at how much Russia was going to spend was $12 billion. According to Think Progress Sochi Olympic will Cost more than every other winter Olympic combined said “the average cost overrun of Games between 1960 and 2012, the researchers found, was 179 percent in real terms” (Waldron). 
Now when looking at that it means that every Games have gone over budget but Russia after doing the calculations are 425% overrun, that has been be most any Game has gone over. Later on when reading the article from Think Progress all the questions one has asked why did Russia get to host the Games if there are so much problems and money being put into it and it still not being done has been answered. Russia was given the games as they sold that the Games would be a chance for a “new Russia”. Yet could this really actually happen according to Think Progress Sochi Olympic will Cost more than every other winter Olympic combined said “If the messages these events are supposed to sell aren’t delivered and if the benefits that purportedly follow don’t, the question is whether they are worth their cost” (Waldron). This means what if it doesn’t create that “new Russia” and can really the Games do that? To fix something that is broken means to fix the main problem and in reality Russia just hasn’t stepped up to the plate to fix their economy, to fix the scarcity of cops school means of transportation ect. so they use what is Nationally know as a way to try. They create a bigger problem for other economies that help fund all the money they are using form the Games.
http://thinkprogress.org/sports/2014/02/03/3239131/sochi-olympics-cost-winter-olympics-combined/
http://www.cnn.com/2014/02/03/travel/sochi-olympic-hotels/
In the situation such as the Olympics, it is interesting to look into the trade offs for the host country. Although they need to spend a lot of money, resources, and time into preparing for the games, they receive a lot of publicity as a country and pride in knowing the games will be hosted on home soil.
ReplyDeleteWhile they ran billions of dollars over, was it worth it? Many say that the events will soon pay for them selves with all the new facilities in sochi providing a lot of future income for the city and country, but will this happen? Sochi was little to nothing and also has one of the warmest temperatures in Russia this time of the year. It will be interesting to see how Sochi, and Russia, play out after the Olympics. It may be a lot like the Super Bowl, which, although it does generate a lot of money, doesn't really send out money to the local economy.
ReplyDeleteThe winter Olympics have been under a lot of controversy this year. From the final ring that didn’t open during the opening ceremonies, to the unfinished buildings in the Olympic villages. With all of the money that Russia has put into making these Olympics run smoothly there have been a lot of corrupt actions taking place in Russia. And though all of this people are still glued to their TV’s. People in every country are spending money on new clothes and other things to increase their nationalism and support their country in these prestigious games.
ReplyDeleteThe Olympics in theory were a good choice for Russia to gain a little public notice. However it seems that this will end up hurting the image people have of the country more than doing good. Because the money for the games does not completely come from the pocket of Russia this would have been a good way to boost their own status while keeping spending to a low amount.
ReplyDeleteIt take so much money to get their cities ready for the Olympics then why don't they just have it in the same cities every four years for winter Olympics and the same with the Summer? Then switch when another country's cities are ready.
ReplyDeleteRussia should not of held the Winter Olympics this year. Like what you said about how they had to spend 5 times more money than China in 2008, Russia was a bad choice to have the Winter Olympics. Fifty billion dollars is a lot of money that Russia could of used on more important things. I saw on NBC.com that people in Russia were getting their electronics hacked and the money that Russia spent on building the Olympics, should have been spent on their security problem.
ReplyDeleteClearly in a situation like this, you would have expected that Russia's government would have talked about all the different kinds of things that could come out of hosting the Winter Olympics this year, and I'm sure that they have. They must have come up with a plan in some way in order to ensure financial security for their nation to contain such an event. They did spend a ton of money setting these kinds of things up, but with how much many they will make from people buying things there, to buying tickets to watch people compete, it will all eventually even out I would assume. So many people are always willing to purchase things and especially at an event like the Olympics, I'm sure they will accumulate plenty of money to help solve their issues.
ReplyDeleteAlthough Russia has claimed that this will be a cheap and "green" olympics, as some may expect, it has not turned out to be either. There was an article I read about a business man who exposed some of the figures was threatened. He fled Russia for, England, I think. Another really surprising thing for me is why the games were held in Sochi, a warm city. Even up in the mountains most days the temperatures are in the 40's and 50's. Russia, a huge country, definitely isn't running out of any cold areas, yet the olympics are held in a city that was warmer than Atlanta, Georgia, a few days ago.
ReplyDeleteI think that this is really interesting and it is a cool perspective to think of the Olympics through an economic lens. It makes sense why this Olympics is costing so much because Russia never spent a large quantity of time investing in their infrastructure. I think that expanding on the global impact of the Olympics would have been really cool on this. Especially on the smaller countries and what not.
ReplyDeleteThe Olympics, a time when family comes together to root on their country for the gold. But did you know that for any US Olympian that gets a gold they must pay almost 10G in taxes for that gold medal. The Cost benefit of the Olympics greatly leans towards the cost rising since 50 billion dollars is a lot to spend especially for a country like Russia who is just on the rise of economic equality. Especially since Russia's climate in the mountains range from 40-50 degrees, terrible for winter sports such as skiing and snowboarding. Along with Russia's anti-gay policy it's a wonder they were allowed to have the Olympics there. To tell you the truth I would be scared to even go watch. It seems that all the marginal benefit of the winter Olympics has been sucked away with the cost, location, and direction that the Olympics is moving in. So far there has only been one death in the Olympics, the man who messed up in the opening ceremonies opening the last ring was found dead in his hotel the next day. This is a hostel environment and do we want our best athletes to suffer the same consequences?
ReplyDeleteAlthough it seems like fifty billion dollars is outrageous to spend on the games, money is not always the means by which countries measure the success of their games. There are significant social and cultural benefits to hosting the games. It rallies the people of the nation, and causes them to celebrate their history and traditions. An economist would see this as a return on the investment -- they may even try to convert it into a dollar amount and perform marginal analysis with the social/cultural benefit included. We also need to consider that Russia's more command-based economy could make them gather funds more easily. In America, an expenditure like that by the government would be seen as abusive to the taxpayers, but in Russia, it may be normal for the government to spend huge amounts of money on such projects.
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