Tower and Town, May 2020 (view the full edition)Olympics: Money-Maker Or Money-Taker
The modern Olympic Games are a party where both the East and West celebrate sport, multiculturalism, peace, unity. Since its introduction in 1896, as well as the wide array of sports and contestants, there has been a wide range of host cities. Aside from a power statement that has been used by countries in the past, such as the USA, former USSR and China, there are many reasons a country might host the Olympics, such as raising the morale of the people through patriotism or giving them a once in a lifetime chance to attend the Olympics, creating jobs, boosting the economy through tourism as well as being an opportunity to invest in long-term infrastructure such as transport links and build cutting-edge sports facilities for post-games. Yet, interest to host the Olympics has taken a harsh decline, with many claiming that the Olympics are a bad investment for the host country. Japan decided to host the Olympics to help their lackluster economy, but the past tells they could possibly get the very opposite.
On the other hand I would like to emphasis that it is not all gloom and doom. The Olympics still has the ability to be a roaring success, as demonstrated by the London 2012 Olympics. Hosted partly as an attempt to restore prosperity in poorer areas of London, the London Olympics was at the time hailed as a great success; it decreased unemployment over the whole of London, regenerated areas hosting the Olympics, such as Stratford and Tower Hamlets, massively improved transport links – Stratford is now second to only King’s Cross as the most connected areas in London, and the Olympics is thought to have generated an extra £10 billion in income for the UK economy. The Games also delivered on the morale boost – more than two thirds of the UK’s population believe the £9 billion cost was worth it – and received admiration from the UK, with the then Mayor of London Boris Johnson calling it ‘the greatest Games ever’, as well as the rest of the world admiring it, with the New York Times calling the London Olympics an ‘extra-strength dose of mood-enhancing drug’. Yet, what is perhaps more impressive was the Olympic legacy, which refers to the long-term benefits of hosting the Olympics. The London Olympics have had a fantastic legacy, which ranges from the 8,000 affordable homes now available as part of the former athletes’ village to the 40,000 jobs on and around the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park; and also to the numerous sporting events held post-games in former Olympic venues, including the 2017 World Championships in Athletics and home matches for the football club West Ham United. Not bad for an Olympics that went £528 million below its £9.29 billion budget. In conclusion, London 2012 proved that hosting the Olympic can still be a gold medal in itself. Yet, ultimately the Olympics guarantee no victory, so the risk of an Athens or Rio-like event always lingers. Either way, all eyes will be on the Japan in 2021, to see if they can provide the greatest celebration on Earth. Jonthan Jarjis |
Japan has many reasons to be skeptical going into the Olympics. The celebration that was once millions is now billions in cost; hence the question is whether Japan will be able to repay the $12.5bn estimated cost and eventually achieve economic growth. It is ironic that the very country that began the Olympic Games, Greece, suffered economic failure when it hosted the 2004 Olympics. Moreover, this debt has prevented Greece from hosting sporting events, so instead of using the Olympic facilities to bring in money, most of the facilities remained unused. The result of this is that many of the stadiums are left in a derelict and depressing state, such as the 8,000 seat stadium built for table tennis which is now empty and desolate. Today, many blame the 2004 Olympics as the cause of the Greek Recession. Yet, hosting the Olympics has not just had negative economic impacts in the past, but negative social impacts too, such as the case with the 2016 Rio Olympics that costed $13 billion. But will Japan suffer the same fate as Athens and Rio? Rising costs due to the delay of the Games to 2021 (some sources claim it could cost $5 billion in order to do things like maintaining the venues and hiring volunteers) suggest there is a possibility.