The Olympic Games consistently rank among the most popular television events of Olympic years, with NBC Sports Group chairman Mark Lazarus heralding the events as “must-see propert[ies] on television.” The Olympics have become a commercial and economic powerhouse for host nations, providing the hosts a means to showcase their countries and cultures to the world,something that can reap tourism and economic benefits long after the closing ceremonies. According to Binyamin Appelbaum of the New York Times, in an attempt to use the Games to help spur the city’s economy, city officials in Rio de Janiero have “embarked on an infrastructure splurge that may top $25 billion.” Thus, the Games seem like a unique way to stimulate economic growth in the infrastructure and tourism sectors — in theory at least.
The Games have ultimately become hyper-lavish displays of opulence and grandeur that host nations frequently cannot afford. Sports expenditures frequently run well over budget, and as such, the Times continues, “there is strikingly little evidence that such events increase tourism or draw new investment.” In calculating the economic benefits of the Games, opportunity costs are frequently neglected — namely, what would have happened had the Games not taken place. While there is tangible economic growth in the broader Brazilian economy in preparation for the games, many of the general infrastructure projects undergone to support the games, like highway and airport construction and mass transit overhauls, would have been constructed anyway if Rio, a city in severe disrepair, wanted to maintain its status as a major city and economic player — and probably could have been constructed more efficiently and strongly had the impetus of the Games not been rushing the projects. For instance, the $300 million spent on the Arena Amazonia for the 2014 World Cup — a stadium whose national team usually draws fewer than 2,000 per game — could have been put into more extensive public works projects. Furthermore, as the Times article states, “quite a few [stadiums built for the Games] sit virtually empty as the original in Olympia, Greece.” The Bird’s Nest, the stadium built for the opening and closing ceremonies for the 2008 Beijing Games, is now primarily used for tourist-trap $20 Segway rides around the track.
Additionally, all the negative publicity Rio has received about corruption and pollution is perhaps doing more harm than the Games will do good, a phenomenon that has been noted in other host cities as well. “Decaying venues from the 2004 Olympics became a metaphor for Greece’s economic crisis,” Appelbaum continues.He writes, “Sochi’s legacy was overshadowed by securing concerns and warm weather.” Through the eyes of the media, Rio seems like it may forever remain in a state of corruption and disrepair.
Still, Rio will be the first city in South America to host the Olympics, a part of the International Olympic Committee’s (IOC) laudable goal to promote diversity by giving the Games to countries that have never before hosted such grand events. In such an initiative, though, the IOC neglects the fact that many of these newly-considered hosts in the developing world are not in adequate financial states to both sponsor the Games and provide financially for the large portion of their population that is government-dependent. There is much unrest in Brazil due to governmental neglect, and the Games have only burgeoned such sentiments, as money that could have been spent on social welfare initiatives instead gets pumped into stadiums that may have little long-term return.
There must be a better support system for funding these Games. Perhaps a joint funding system where all participating nations help financially support the Games could be implemented, taking some financial pressure off the host. Furthermore, there must be an effort to involve and utilize stadiums and venues that have already been built to avoid wasting money on facilities that will not be used again after the Games — like what happened in Beijing and Sochi.
Brazil will, in many ways, be a test run for hosts in the developing world. With only a few months left, time will delineate success from failure — as well as demarcate the path for the Olympics moving forward.
Dan Sullivan is a freshman from Southold, N.Y. He can be reached at dgs4@princeton.edu.
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