How does Hosting the Olympics impact a country?

 How does hosting the Olympics impact a country?

Carson Dobberstein

Hosting the Olympics has always been something that countries want to do since they began. They want to show off how awesome their country, and their culture. Countries put a lot of effort into planning, and building the Olympic grounds because they want it to be the best venue in the history of the Olympics. There are many benefits to hosting the Olympic games, but do the negatives outweigh those benefits? You decide.

Where it all begins. The host of the Olympics is determined 11 years out. For 2 years the countries look at if they can financially host the Olympics, make sure the construction companies, architectural companies, ect. Are on board with getting the Olympics done and making it the absolute best that they can so the rest of the world sees how great their country is. After those 2 years countries bid on who gets to host the Olympics. A country has to pay an entree fee of $150,000 minimum and the Olympic committee won’t stop you from starting off with more money (they might listen to what you have to say if you give more money.) In 2016 barak obama was unsuccessful in getting the Olympics in Chicago, his bid was said to be around 200 million dollars. 

Large risk, MEGA project. 

Hosting the Olympics is a huge risk. At first I would’ve personally read that and said why? How? There are large risks in lots of ways. For example, you CANNOT be late on getting everything built and perfect, you are on a deadline that can’t be shifted even a few hours, not even just the venue but everything around it that has to be built, new roads, everything. Due to the deadline not being shifted, every Olympic games since 1932 has gone over 100% of their budget, most of them have gone over 145% of their budget. 45% doesnt sound like that much does it? Well, when you’re talking about being in the billions, 45% is a lot of extra money. Another huge risk you are taking is tourists, you are expecting to make a lot of your profit off of people coming to the venue, buying merchandise, staying in hotels, not necessarily just at the Olympic grounds, but everything surrounding it is well. Think about this the Olympics is chosen 11 years out, so Beijing 2022 would’ve been chosen in 2011. Beijing was expecting a large tourist coming out to the games that was a big part of the reason it made any financial sense to host the games. Flash forward to now, nobody, not even family was allowed to attend the Olympics, strictly athletes, and coaches. With choosing the hosting country 11 years out, whatever happens is unpredictable and your country could lose a ton of money. But, that being said, I don’t think a pandemic has ever effected the Olympics like the covid pandemic. 

We’ve talked a little about the process of creating an Olympic site, the risks of hosting, now let’s decide if it makes sense to host the Olympics. In 1984, the Los Angeles Olympics decided to use pre-built sites, the total profit made was 200 million-plus in profit. If we look at the Montreal games which was estimated to be a $360 million dollar project turned into a $1.6 billion dollar project they lost a lot of money on those games. 

To conclude, hosting the Olympic games is something countries want to do. This is most likely due to Nationalism and not profit, although countries can make a really good profit off of it. Would you host the Olympics purley based on the money? Why or why not? 

https://www.britannica.com/list/7-ways-hosting-the-olympics-impacts-a-city

https://www.procon.org/headlines/hosting-the-olympic-games-top-3-pros-and-cons/

https://www.economicshelp.org/blog/29/sport/costs-and-benefits-of-the-olympics/