Almost No One Wants To Host The Olympics, Because It's A Costly, Corrupt Mess
from the protect-that-brand dept
For many years, we've written about questionable activities by the Olympics, usually focusing on the organization's insanely aggressive approach to intellectual property, which could be summed up as "we own and control everything." Yes, the Olympics requires countries to pass special laws that protect its trademarks and copyrights beyond what standard laws allow. Of course, this is really much more about control and money. It's simply shining a light on just how corrupt the whole Olympic setup is. For decades, the Olympics has tried to hide this basic truth, and it has always been able to get various cities and countries to actively compete to suffer through the Olympics requirements, often with promises of big money in tourism and local business as a result. But it looks like jig may be up.As Dan Wetzel notes, it appears that almost no one has any interest in hosting the 2022 Olympics. The only active attempts are Beijing (which is 120 miles from a mountain suitable for skiing) and Almaty Kazakhstan. All the other credible players have bailed out:
Plenty of other countries didn't even bother thinking about it. As Wetzel points out, basically the only two countries interested are authoritarian regimes:Certainly not Oslo, Norway, not even at the bargain rate of an estimated $5.4 billion in a nation of just five million people. It once wanted desperately to host the 2022 Winter Olympics and its bid was so perfect that it was considered the favorite to win. Then the country held a vote earlier this year and 55.9 percent of Norwegians opposed.
Wednesday the Norwegian government effectively pulled the bid. Norwegians are known for the ability to cross country ski really fast and being so friendly they beg visitors to come experience their picturesque nation. Since this involved the IOC however, they decided against having visitors come experience their picturesque nation to watch them cross country ski really fast.
They aren't alone. Previous finalist Krakow, Poland, saw 70 percent voter opposition and pulled its application. A majority felt the same way in Germany and Switzerland, killing bids in Munich and St. Moritz respectively. In Sweden the majority party rejected funding the proposed games in Stockholm.
Essentially the only places interested in hosting the 2022 games are countries where actual citizens aren't allowed a real say in things – communist China and Kazakhstan, a presidential republic that coincidentally has only had one president since it split from the old USSR in 1989.To sum it up:
Essentially the entire world has told the IOC it's a corrupt joke.Don't hold back:
The IOC has billions of dollars laying around and billions more coming because to most people the Olympics is just a television show and the ratings are so high that the broadcast rights will never go down. The IOC doesn't pay the athletes. It doesn't share revenue with host countries. It doesn't pay for countries to send their athletes. It doesn't lay out any construction or capital costs. It doesn't pay taxes.Except now the racket may be ending. Except for China and Kazakhstan. Wetzel's conclusion is spot on:
It basically holds caviar rich meetings in five star hotels in the Alps before calling it a day. That and conduct weak investigations into corruption charges of the bidding process, of course. "No evidence uncovered" is on a win streak.
It's a heck of a racket.
So China or Kazakhstan it is, the last two suckers on earth willing to step up to this carnival barker.The Olympics are from another era -- one of top down, "we control and own everything while paying none" variety. We've seen those types of businesses failing in lots of other arenas -- and now it may be happening to the Olympics as well.
One lucky nation will win. The other will host the 2022 Winter Olympics.
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Filed Under: china, control, corruption, kazakhstan, olympics, sports, top down
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Now, if only the athletes would realize what a joke the Olympics are.
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Athletes should start a new "olympics"-type event, run wholly by athletes.
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It's about time
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To 'Fix' The IOC
Then the world might truly be a better place.
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The Olympics are over - Now what?
What a waste of money.
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It pays no money.
The value of the medals also would make next to no money if you sold it compared to how much time and effort was put into getting it.
Nor does experience preparing for or winning the Olympics give you the training you need to do a real job that gives you a weekly salary.
Even if you do really well, no you won't be able to make a career out of being famous for winning a bunch of gold medals, everyone will forget about you in a few years. Most of the events/games aren't even aired on TV so how will you gain fame if no one watches you win?
And even if you do strike it rich from winning a bunch of gold medals, the vast majority of professional athletes who made millions during their career go bankrupt within 5 years of their early retirement in their 20's or young 30's.
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You will never find a more wretched hive of...
I served on the board of directors of a national governing body -- NGB's are the organizations that oversee particular sports on a per-country basis, e.g., "US Skiing", "US Track and Field", and so on. This brought me into contact with some wonderful people -- brilliant athletes who were and are exemplary role models, hard-working, fair, honest, dedicated, everything that we could possibly hope that people representing us to the world could be.
It also brought me into contact with the politics of the IOC. It's difficult to identify a more fundamentally greedy and corrupt organization (although ICANN comes to mind). It's so bad that I'm convinced one of the worst things to ever happen to my sport is its inclusion in the Olympics.
Which is a pity, as I empathize with the athletes and -- having held an Olympic gold medal in my hands -- I understand the emotions behind the drive to win one. But that moment of individual triumph and gratification comes at the cost of embracing the IOC's hypocrisy, corruption, greed, and duplicity...and I'm not sure it's worth it.
By the way, there's a "Washington DC 2024" organization -- despite the fact that this is an insanely stupid idea.
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If this is true it makes the Olympics actively damaging to the economy. Combined with the pressure that it puts on the locals to be more wealthy to stop embarrassing the nation (brazil), you have a nightmare for the people who will be forced from their homes to make way for stadiums that will be used for jack shit after the Olympics are gone.
Small wonder they are unpopular.
It is such a shame however because the idea behind a nonviolent destination for competition where even the poorest African countries can have some pride in their athlete who stomped the big boys from the US, Russia, and China.
I really wish that the IOC will take this as a lesson to shape up because there is real potential here. And yes I will take the hopeful, maybe foolish, view here because I believe that the Olympics can be a force for good, as an outlet for cultures and countries that are suffering hardship to regain a modicum of pride in themselves. I believe the Olympics can be a meeting ground for people, not just governments, so we can see that cultures we are bombing are not really so different from us. Maybe some culture shock will do the ignorant fools of my country some good.
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IOC - Plan B
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Re:
It's not about the money. It's not about the career. It's not about the fame -- which is almost always fleeting anyway, and athletes know that.
It's about the personal (or team) challenge of trying to be the best in the world...which is not so much about defeating one's opponents as it is about getting the best out of oneself. It's about the thousands of hours of training, the early mornings, the sore muscles, the injury setbacks, the pain, the lost relationships, the sacrifices, the endurance, the will, the drive, the ability to do it every day even when you want to stop.
It's a journey of self-discovery.
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i hadn't considered that. why haven't we tried this previously?
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It's unfortunate what it has turned into.
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TBH
I'd also rather just burn the money than pay to have it hosted in my city.
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Good lord, from your description of why people become olympic athletes, I'm tempted to think that by "self-discovery" you actually meant "masochism" or "self-loathing."
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Re: It's about time
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For instance (while I'm not really into sports) my dad is into sports. In recent years many sports have stopped being broadcasted over the air anymore. Time Warner cable also buying exclusive rights to the Dodgers has prevented many (sports) bars from hosing them as well excluding many of my dad's friends from watching it. One of the few (if not the main) reason my dad gets cable is because he likes to watch sports. He watches it so that he can talk about it with his friends. However now that his friends are no longer talking about the Dodgers my dad has lost a lot of interest because when he's with his friends the subject is now something else. Many of his friends don't have cable and now they can't watch it at the sports bars they visit and so they have no reason to talk about it. The sports leagues, by trying to turn themselves into an exclusive club, are essentially shooting themselves in the foot.
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Re: IOC - Plan B
This is a great application of the new principle of corporate sovereignty that every honest person can support.
We are talking with out lawyers right now!
Thanks again.
- Thomas Bach, President, IOC
/s
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Never again.
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"only about 30% of the homes in Los Angeles are able to see the Dodger games on television, leaving 70% of us in the dark. "
and while we happen to have TWC, like I said, my dad lost a lot of interest because many of his friends don't and so now there is less point in watching it because his friends don't talk about it as much. So to those 30% that do have it the value just went down (not up).
Heck, TWC and the Dodgers would be better off if people pirated it but most people figure it's not worth the hassle which is bad for TWC and the Dodgers. When the value is so low that it's not even worth pirating then that should tell you something.
"Time Warner Cable wanted to buy at that exorbitant price to control the market while mistakenly thinking it could offset the huge price tag by selling the rights at inflated prices to the other distributors, who would in turn pass price increases to all of their subscribers, not just to those who watch Dodger baseball."
...
"The other distributors balked ... And so Time Warner Cable is on the hook for $8.35 billion and the Dodgers have a image crises. "
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/gene-del-vecchio/the-dodgers-time-warner-c_b_5428136.html
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Give the IOC the old "Undiscovered Country" treatment
And bravo to all the countries who have finally done this to the IOC.
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I'm certain "in the foot" should be "in the ass", as that is where their brains are, because that is the current location of their heads.
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But I was back the next day. Not out of masochism or self-loathing, but because I refused to give in to my own weaknesses. Instead I worked hard to overcome them, and the ensuing struggle made me a better person.
I'm hardly alone in that. And that, more than the momentary glory of making it onto the podium, is what brings meaning and value to athletic competition. And unfortunately that has gotten completely buried by the IOC: if it's to be found in the Olympics, it's because the athletes brought it with them.
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Re: The Olympics are over - Now what?
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insert tasteless comment here
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I bet you can't name anyone.
Most Olympic games aren't even aired on TV. You have to watch them at 3 AM or so live on the Internet.
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"..The Olympics, Because It's A Costly, Corrupt Mess"
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Age of Olympic Boycotts
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If I had to guess, maybe because the US is too corrupt even for the IOC?
Or maybe because the US has too many other copyright maximalists that would be in conflict with the IOC over some imaginary rights?
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Didn't the Olympics facter into the fall of Greece?
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The Olympics lasts a few weeks. In order to get the games, they need a certain number of facilities. Generally, countries see the games as an excuse to go on a massive spending spree to improve their sports facilities and transportation networks. Sadly, they are often building stadiums nobody wants, housing ill equipped for the local population, and transportation networks to and from places nobody normally wants to go outside of the games.
It doesn't help the IOC at this point that the last few Olympics have been financial fiascoes on an extreme scale: Russia reportedly overspent by nearly 50 billion for the winter games, Beijing more than 40 billion over budget for the summer games. These massive overspenders have set the bar high, and nobody seems able to hit it.
We won't even talk about the disaster that is Greece.
The real ongoing issue is that Olympics seemingly cannot happen in existing facilities. It seems to require all new, all modern, all perfect things built for the ages and used for the weeks. In these tougher financial times, only communist (and near communist) nations appear to have the money and desire to get into these things. Even the oil rich countries of the middle East are smart enough not to get dragged into the mess.
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The IOC will always have friends
(and no, I do not mean Tim Cook)
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If you can't see the connection then you are an idiot and deserved to be called out on it.
"Then the country held a vote earlier this year and 55.9 percent of Norwegians opposed."
"Previous finalist Krakow, Poland, saw 70 percent voter opposition and pulled its application"
The Olympics are doing everything they can to alienate their viewers and make them disinterested which exactly what TWC is doing as well. Doing so is not a good idea.
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Michael Phelps
Kyla Ross
McKayla Maroney
Gabby Douglas
Drew Doughty
Roberto Luongo
Jonathan Toews
I could go on all day, but how am I doing so far?
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Please don't misunderstand what I'm saying here: I'm not condemning the attitude at all. How could I when I don't get it?
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Re: The Olympics are over - Now what?
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Your question isn't a serious question. What I posted is relevant to the Olympics because it shows another arena where sports leagues are hurting themselves for various reasons that have to do with their overaggressive attempts to control everything, to overcharge everyone, to ask for very one sided terms and conditions, and to be as exclusive as possible.
"and the issues that they cause are due to their own organizational deficiencies and corruption and not anything to do with exclusivity"
Sure it does. From the OP
"the Olympics requires countries to pass special laws that protect its trademarks and copyrights beyond what standard laws allow."
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Re: Didn't the Olympics facter into the fall of Greece?
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Re: insert tasteless comment here
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IOC demands ...
One wonders in what manner the remaining candidates will meet these demands.
Most entertaining is the IOC statement when Norway dropped out on it's own.
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Winter Olympics and Summer Olympics are quite different
Also because of the requirements (i.e. mountains) a lot of places just can't hold it so automatically you have a smaller selection of countries which can host it.
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It would be nice if instead of countries paying to host the Olympics, all the building and development were paid for by the IOC (from TV money) so the games might actually benefit the host country. Then the bids would be about the most suitable location, not about who's willing to spend the most money.
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Re: Winter Olympics and Summer Olympics are quite different
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I wouldn't trade the trip for anything, though: from winning championships to losing by .17 seconds, from days when I was "on" to days that were nothing but frustration, from the grind of endless training to the hours in physical therapy, it's all been worth it. I didn't really seek this out: I just sort of fell into it. But I'm glad I did: it's made me a better person and given me perspective I didn't have before. Now I'm passing that on to others, trying to instill in them the values I've learned: train hard, compete fairly, respect your competition, win graciously, lose graciously...then do it all again.
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That's a little on the silly side. I don't watch or follow the Olympics at all, but some of those athletes (Michael Phelps comes to mind) were omnipresent anyway.
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Where it is taken serious would be in Rowing/Canoe/Kayak, Track Cycling, Shooting, Archery, Trampoline, Fencing etcetera, since those sports aren't as commonly followed. Now, if a few sports are removed, several sports are ready to enter or reenter the olympics, like Water Skiing, Roller sports, Dance Sports, Karate, Ultimate, Squash and so on are ready to take over.
No, the best way to teach IOC is to make them return towards the days of old, in the 80's where exactly the price-tag and their process was what was close to ending the olympics...
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Like synchronized swimming? Or maybe horse dancing?
"ou have a chance to become a household name AND make millions in endorsements for the rest of your life"
Hahahaha - ya, right.
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It's sort of like the "majors" in golf or tennis. Everyone plays pretty much every week, but some events have more cachet. They're all played by the same rules, but for some reason one tournament happens to mean more than the others. Because of that the prize money is better which means that everyone who can shows up.
In the O------- they don't even get prize money, but the publicity that comes from being a medal winner is better than what you get from winning any other event. Maybe if Kazakhstan is the only place that will host it the credibility will change
Remember what a big deal it used to be to host the World's Fair? New Orleans and Knoxville certainly do.
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Re: Re: IOC - Plan B
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Dont forget the the last one to host it
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But even the '76 olympics in Mtl left behind a critically messed up building, our olympic stadium with its retractable roof (that only worked 13-14 years) was the new home of the Expos after the olympics. It's concept was great but money was cut short, and the wires from the tower where the controls are broken, so now it's skies are closed permanently, it really made baseball even more boring not to be able to be a game when it was sunny outside only to enter the echo filled toilet bowl looking cigarette taxes paid with (of course they didn't remove the tax once it was all paid for, in about the mid 2000's, it just pays for other stuff now)-- joke.
If godzilla ever came to Montreal he'd take a dump on the olympic stadium that's for sure.
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Re: It's about time
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Re: The Olympics are over - Now what?
But the place isn't useless now,it's where a lot of boxers train, some Montreal Alouettes CFL games are set to be played there due to the massive crowd one can have (65 000 seats), and yeah the CFL is actually popular in Canada, with enough people anyway, I find both kinds of Handeggs boring though. Canadian a little less so, since there's less useless defense players so it's more offensive.
I still don't think encouraging us in Quebec to smoke more cigarettes than all other provinces (which was already happening, even our prime minister smoked, at work and on tv before that as a political analyst...the good old days heh, but the whole huge toilet bowl with a broken retractable ceiling (which is what made it so costly) took 30 years of us smoking cigarettes to pay for it (tax from cigs used to pay for it). It would be repairable, and if the Expos ever come back (and they will, F your DC Nationals), it's gonna be in a downtown stadium, for sure.
Sorry, kinda miss our baseball team more than other years this year, especially since our last awesome players we produced recently retired (Vladimir Guerrero, Pedro Martinez). That '94 season, it was ours ugh....9 games ahead of the Braves too (to young people here, in the 90's the Yankees and Red Sox both sucked, Pittsburgh Pirates were better, the top teams in the National was Montreal Expos and Atlanta Braves (with their 5 all star starting pitchers..) and the Jays had just won 2 pennants in a row in the American where I think Indians, Giants and Rangers were the best teams (with Toronto, too, obviously).
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Re: Re: The Olympics are over - Now what?
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Me too. There is still a lot of LSD in this country :D
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TVA-Sports has been around since about 3 years, people were wondering why we needed another french speaking sports channel, there wasn't much shown there that wasn't on RDS (the french TSN).
I can't believe Toronto Leafs fans (lol, the poor poor fools) have to deal with not having all 82 games (they rarely make playoffs) on TSN + CBC. Yeah, the CBC no longer broadcasts hockey games. Stephen Harper was right when he said that when he was done Canada would be unrecognizable (aka destroyed culture, environment and minorities and poor people while at it). ER's will become shitty again soon, sure, Health is a provincial issue but the Liberals in 2004 put into law a 10 year massive (billions) additional fund to modernize hospitals in all provinces, about 33% of the job is done and nope, Harper won't renew this commitment.
Sorry about the political tangent, but our country is the one being hurt the most by neoconism, yes, even more than the USA. Your bill of rights in theory is better than our charter of rights and freedoms. I just laugh it off as I look look our HDI go from #1 in the world in 2004 drop every year since the Conservatards got in in 2006 (even as a minority government).
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Re: Re: Re: IOC - Plan B
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Re: Winter Olympics and Summer Olympics are quite different
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olympics
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China will pull its bid too
Or they could put it on, tell the IOC to f*ck off once it is there, and keep all the profits.
Maybe they could charge a fee for each camera in their facilities and allow networks to pay by the pixel.
Everyone could watch the olympics in standard definition in compressed formats.
They wouldn't look like fools then.
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Provincialism
There are two points of note. One, the article doesn't make clear that this is the Winter Olympics, which isn't as popular as the Summer Olympics.
Secondly, the Summer Olympics is still considered the World-class 'gold standard' of sport, precisely because it is against all the world gymnasts - it is not like you 'World Series' from one country! With proper planning (i.e. learning from Greece) it can actually work quite well.
The UK just hosted an extremely successful Summer Olympics. We planned infrastructure improvements so that we didn't have white elephants (we had enough of those from the Millenium), we had very good tourism for it, and more importantly, we pumped a lot of money into sports - which meant that not only did we have an incredible medal haul, but we have had incredible medal hauls in all major sports events since then, especially the Glasgow-hosted Commonwealth Games this year. Plus, it provided a much-needed public morale booster - with some help from Mitt Romney, whose dumb comments about it was going to be a bit of a disaster helped make the country pull together.
So the Summer Olympics can work for a host country, if done right and having infrastructure in place. True, we need to see how the London legacy works out, and how it works for Brazil in 2016.
That doesn't stop it being one of the most corrupt and broken processes on the planet (Qatar 2020 anyone?) and badly in need of reform, but as a world stage for athletes it has no comparison.
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Re: olympics
Unlike pretty much every Olympics that came before and after, those games were privately funded, so the city didn't incur much of the insane costs of hosting them.
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Re: Provincialism
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don't worry
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more US propaganda how much say do americans have?
Essentially the only places interested in hosting the 2022 games are countries where actual citizens aren't allowed a real say in things – communist China and Kazakhstan, a presidential republic that coincidentally has only had one president since it split from the old USSR in 1989.;'
more US anticommunist rubbish...how much say to europeans or americans have in their regimes political decisions? who miliarily occupies a multitude of states and doesny ask its citizens of they should?
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authoritian regimes how many has US made?
meanwhile, lets see what US does with unfortunate countries around the globe: take free peoples and turns their lands into authoritarian regimes
U.S. State Department Policy Planning Study #23, 1948:
US Friendly Dictators:
'Our real task... is to devise a pattern of relationships which will permit us to maintain this position of disparity [U.S. military- economic supremacy]... To do so, we will have to dispense with all sentimentality and day-dreaming... We should cease to talk about vague and...unreal objectives such as human rights, the raising of the living standards, and democratization... we are going to have to deal in straight power concepts. The less we are then hampered by idealistic slogans, the better. George Kennan, Director of Policy Planning. U.S. State Department. 1948
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article2844.htm
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noone wants to host the olympics? or does noone have the money?
winter olympics need snow...
here is what the issue is:
even thos CBS likes to bash russia, adn stike fear in people it admits:
'Many cities in Western Europe have been scared off by the $51 billion price tag associated with the 2014 Winter Games in Sochi, Russia. While most of that money went to long-term regeneration projects, not the cost of running the games, cities remain wary of the expense.
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/2022-winter-olympics-only-two-cities-left-vying-to-host-games/
so its about fear of expense...and maybe revolution by the masses.
FYI russian winter olympics cost about @5 billion...anything else is US propaganda
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