The IOC knows very few people want to spend tax money for its event.
The International Olympic Committee is all of a sudden worried about “white elephants” or unused Olympic facilities in countries that have held the Games and does not want to see that happen in the future. Countries built venues for Games and there are many pictures available illustrating how the Olympic venues are not used and have fallen into disrepair although the IOC disputes that. The IOC also knows taxpayers want no part of their two-week sports orgy and there are plenty of examples of that lately ranging from Boston to cities in Switzerland, the home of the IOC. The IOC has had trouble finding host cities and changed how it looks for willing Olympic host candidates to eliminate such pesky things as local referendums that ask voters if they want to see their taxes go into a money-losing venture like the Olympics. The IOC doesn’t lose money but local cities do.
Jacqueline Barrett is the IOC director of future Olympic Games hosts and is saying that there is a need for cities aiming to stage the Olympics to use either existing or temporary venues to hold competitions. The IOC wants to leave a legacy other than rotting venues and large host city, host nation debt. Barrett added that the IOC told potential bidders to consider hosting sports outside of their own country and look for places that have existing facilities. But all is not gloom and doom. The IOC has produced a study to disprove all of those news articles that highlight unused and rotting Olympic stadiums and arenas since 1896. The IOC claims 85 per cent of all permanent Olympic venues since the modern Games began in 1896 remain in use. The IOC is desperately trying to clean up its debt leaving legacy as it looks for new Olympic cities.
Evan Weiner’s books are available at iTunes – https://books.apple.com/us/author/evan-weiner/id595575191
Evan can be reached at evan_weiner@hotmail.com
