Next week the Summer Olympic Games begin in Athens, Greece. There is a lot of speculation about whether performance enhancing drug scandals, terrorism, or facility problems might wind up making more news than the athletics but we hope not.
One facet of the Olympics, Summer or Winter, that always makes news is the cost. At least one economist, says that the cost of the spectacles doesn't make sense.
In an Associated Press story, Larry Hadley admits, though, that factors other than cost matter.
Hadley is an expert on sports economics at the University of Dayton. He said that hosting the Olympics is not the financial savior some people expect.
But cities go to great lengths and expense to host the quadrenniel events. Right now there are five cities still trying to get the 2012 Summer Games (New York, London, Paris, Moscow and Madrid) and some are starting campaigns to attract the Winter Games for 2014.
The article says that the final cost of the 2004 Athens Olympics could be close to $12 billion. $1.5 billion of that will be for security and that's a new record. But, those are the times in which we live.
The final figure is twice what was estimated just a few years ago and some say Greece could be paying it off for the next ten years.
There is a still, small collective voice in Greece that has protested the home of the Olympic Games hosting of the event.
Nana Vafidi is leader of the anti movement and calls the situation a Greek tragedy. She said her country will be bankrupted so big money interests can get rich.
The AP reports that the 1984 games in Los Angeles signalled the beginning of the new intent for hosting.
The LA games made a profit of $225 million and the games became an "economic engine." Some point out that the reason it worked out so well was because the city did not have to create a lot of new buildings and other projects to host the games. Evan Osborne, a sports economics teacher at Wright State University said that suddenly the Olympics was seen as an economic bonanza.
In 1976, Montreal was left with a huge public debt. In Atlanta in '96, some development has occurred around Centennial Park but other venues have become less popular.
In Sydney, which hosted the 2000 games, the Morning Herald newspaper reported that about $32 million a year of taxpayer money is being used to help support underused venues.
Robert Baade, a sports mega-events expert from Lake Forest College in Chicago, said the impression is that the games will attract lots of people spending lots of money, but that such belief is not reality.
However, a survey that New South Wales commissioned from PricewaterhouseCooper after the games showed positive results, including $2.1 million in new business and $4.2 million more tourism dollars.
John Lucas, a specialist on modern Olympics at Penn State University, said that the results seem to exist on two levels. On one hand, there is the cost of covering public expenses, but on the other hand, developers and entrepreneurs can make big profits.
The International Olympic Committee is not doing nothing. Last month it announced support for more than 100 recommendations to reduce spending. The list includes cutbacks in venues, credentials and the interminable torch relay.
Some of the cutbacks will be in place before the 2006 Winter Games in Turin, Italy but the full effect is not expected to be felt until the 2010 Winter Games in Vancouver and the 2012 Summer games.
But doggonit, they're fun to watch.