Gold Medal Moves

It comes around every couple of years, and we have become accustomed to it thinking that it will keep coming around every couple of years, but oh my, it costs a city A LOT of money to host an Olympic Games.

I don’t want to get into the numbers too deep here, but invite you to visit a recent CNN article if you want to see just how wild these numbers can get, especially when comparing final costs to estimates and budgets.

When thinking about how much of a losing venture this seems to be, my mind immediately went to the longer-term ramifications of the Games to try to soften the blow. The biggest one of these seemed to be driving more people to visit the city in the wake of the competition. After all, it’s not as if Paris is some unknown city, but you’ve definitely thought about it more in the past week than usual. And with that front-of-mind positioning must come more visitors. But according to the CNN article, there are enough similar negative results to offset these that it does not end up being a win in the long run.

So why do cities still do this?

This seems to be a difficult question to answer, but it’s not as if the Olympics were ever THAT much in danger of not occurring.

The ability to think through these ongoing financial problems is shining bright (almost like a torch one may say), though, before they become insurmountable. The International Olympic Committee has even put out its own list of recommendations to reduce the impact of hosting the Games and making it a more viable opportunity for more cities. To follow along with these, Paris only built one long-term new sports facility for the current competition. Looking ahead to 2028, Los Angeles is even going to hold some events halfway across the country in Oklahoma instead of utilizing new construction.

When looking at how to make even really big things happen, there are always chances to try new tactics. How well any of these will work out remains to be seen, but there is no need to just give up. That would feel like a weird outcome no matter how little one cares about actually watching any of the competition (even archery) or its accompanying ceremonies.

So let there be a lesson in this that no matter how bad things get, it can still be worth trying something new as long as you seek a continued existence.

Warmly,

Josh Bousquet
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