Should The Olympics Be Held In Place?

http://www.citylab.com/desing.2016/08/what-if-the-olympics-stayed-put/494792/?utm_surce=nl_link2_080816

Mr. Bean (Rowan Atkinson) at the 2012 Olympic Opening Ceremony
dailymail.co.uk

Hello Everyone:

The 2016 Summer Olympic Games are off to a good start.  Good start if you count two horrific spill and a story about a submerged sofa capsizing a kayaker.  This and other diversions aside, things in Rio de Janeiro seem to be humming along quite nicely.  Allow Blogger to offer up another diversion, what if the Olympic Games were held in place every four years?

Uri Friedman's CityLab article, "What if the Olympics Stayed Put?" asks us to consider this question.  Winter and Summer Olympic Games are a status symbol for the host country, especially an emerging nation like Brazil.  Mr. Friedman writes, "In the age of fear and loathing, the Parade of Nations and spectacle of countries competing peacefully is most welcome."  Like Mr. Friedman, yours truly is happy to see a South American city get the opportunity to host this two week sports spectacular.  However, given the nation's political and economic turmoil, was hosting an Olympic Games such a wise idea?

Favela Painting Santa Marta
Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
unurth.com

Uri Friedman asks, "...do such benefits justify the Brazilian government and private investors spending somewhere between $12 billion and $20 billion-roughly the gross domestic product of Iceland-to host the Summer Olympics?"  Was it worth it to Brazil to lavishly outbid other countries for the right to host the games in 2007-2008, when its leaders could not imagine this competition would take place against the backdrop of economic recession, Zika, corruption, and impeachment proceedings agains the president?  It sounds insane, right?

Further, how does the Brazilian government justify spending all that money on an event that, by some     estimates, will generate only $4 to $5 billion in revenue?  How will the bankrupt Rio municiple government pay for security and other essential services, and "...when Olympic funds have largely gone toward the construction of stadiums, housing, and subways lines that will benefit the rich more than the poor?

L.A. 84
experiencingla.com

These challenges are unique to Brazil.  With the exception of the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles and the 1992 games in Barcelona, economists Robert Baade and Victor Matheson concluded in their 2016 paper Going for the Gold: The Economics of the Olympics (aeaweb.org),

...in most cases the Olympics are a money-losing proposition for the host cities.

In recent Olympic history, the host cities have had to contend with corruption, growing costs, underinvestment in public services in the lead up to the games, and projects that are less than helpful to most of the population.  If that was not enough, once all the excitement dies down, cities are often left with a mountain of debt and a collection of useless megastructures.  It is little wonder that, "...according to one recent poll, 63 percent of Brazilians believe hosting the Olympics will hurt their country."

Messrs. Baade and Matheson have proposed a number of solutions to the challenges of hosting an Olympic games, including one revolutionary change: "Why not designate a permanent home for the Olympic Games?"

Barcelona 92
en.wikipedia.org

Robert Baade and Victor Matheson's proposal is newly popular but hardly novel.  Mr. Friedman writes, "In fact, it's as old as the Olympics."  The ancient Olympic Games were held in Olympia, and only Olympia for centuries.  Journalist Christina Larson observes,

This set-up seemed to work fine.

Well fine if you do not count the bribery, brawls, black magic, and the occasional performance enhancing animal heart.  No one ever said the ancient Olympic Games were pure.  Maybe "pure as the driven slush."

In the 19th-century, the Olympic Games were revived by French intellectual Baron Pierre de Coubertin, after Roman Emperor Theodosius banned them in the fourth century.  Baron de Coubertin's intention was to rotate the competition between European and American cites as a way to foster "peace" and an "international" spirit.

Athens 1896
en.wikipedia.org

In the beginning, things did not go quite as Baron de Coubertin planned.  As the first modern Olympiad came to a close in Athens in 1896, King George of Greece gave a speech, calling for the games to be held permanently held in his country.  He said Athens, "...could become the 'peaceful meeting place of all nations.'"  The American delegation supported the idea.  The athletes wrote,

The existence of the stadium as a structure so uniquely adapted to its purpose; the proved ability of Greece to competency administer the games; and above all, the fact that Greece is the original home of the Olympic Games; all these considerations force upon us the conviction that these games should never be removed from their native soil.

Baron de Coubertin was not persuaded.  He recalled in his memoirs,

I decided to act as if I were stupid, pretending not to understand the king's speech...The Greeks were overcome by "nationalistic fervour" and not being practical...No on could seriously believe for a moment that Athens would be able to go on indefinitely every four years making the supreme effort requires for the periodic renewal of the organisation and financing.

He sent the King of Greece a letter indicating that the second Olympics would be held in Greece.

Paris 1900
en.wikipedia.org

The Greeks responded by holding parallel games to the rotating Olympic Games for several years.  However, they were distracted by a number of wars and Baron de Coubertin's vision won the day.  He wrote in 1896,

The ancient games had an exclusively Hellenic character; they were always held in the same place, and Greek blood was a necessary condition of admission to them...

The modern game would be different:

[E]very country should celebrate the Olympic games in turn.

The idea of Athens permanently housing the Olympic games resurfaced in 1980 amid the Cold War and the United States planned boycott of the Moscow Summer Olympics in protest of the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan.  By that point, it could be argued that the Games had become politicized.  Olympic historian John Lucas suggested "establishing a fixed 'Olympics Games Center' for the summer contes-a United Nations of sport, housed in a neutral country like Switzerland or Finland-and a limited rotation of locations for the smaller winter event."  The International Olympic Committee, founded by the Baron in the 1890 to run the competition, looked at the feasibility of establishing a fixed site for the Summer Games on the Peloponnesian Peninsula, where the ancient games were held.  The location would be given neutral status, the Greek government would supply the territory and infrastructure, and the IOC and member states would fund the construction.  Nice idea but it never happened.

St. Louis 1904
en.wikipedia.org

The idea of ending the very costly quadrennial rotation continues to have traction.  Some, like John Rennie Short, a professor of public policy at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, has suggested establishing an Summer Olympic city, year-round convention, and training facility on a sparsely in habited Greek Island.  Greece could ease its debt crisis by selling the land and the IOC could pa for the initial construction and operating cost with a bonds or loans staked to future media revenues.  There are those that think that Los Angeles, which showed a profit on the 1984 Games, should be the permanent host city or a Swiss city hosting both the Summer and Winter Games.  Los Angeles as a permanent host city?  Blogger thinks not.

As far fetched as it may sound, it really is not as impractical as it sounds,  Christina Larson argues:

With every change of venue, millions of staff-hours of know-how are lost.  That's not how most other major sporting events are organized.  Professional golf tournaments return to the same courses year after year, allowing he staffs there to learn form their mistakes.  Same with tennis:  The groundskeepers at Wimbledon have had decades to practice pulling out the rain tarps and emptying out the parking lots.  Yet the Olympics tries to reinvent the wheel every time, technicians, security personnel, and volunteers every four years, and expecting time to execute myriad complex logistical task perfectly the first time out.

London 1908
en.wikipedia.org

Uri Friedman poses this question, "But wouldn't installing the Olympics in one country tarnish the global nature of the games?"  Writer Roger Howard has one possible solution: "What if the IOC granted long-term hosting rights to one city, which in turn could sell rights to host each Olympic Games to a different country?"  Essentially, the city with the long-term hosting rights would rent out its Olympic infrastructure.  Nigeria could organize the opening and ceremonies in Tokyo (hosting the Summer Games in 2020).  Mr. Howard adds:

Of course the choice of a permanent home for the Games would be highly contentious.  But such a responsibility could be exercised imaginatively, and even used as a form of developmental aid.  so the IOC could offer this exclusive right to a developing country that desperately needs foreign investment...

Alternatively, the Games could be based on Western soil but the hosting right perhaps sold to a developing country at heavily subsidized price.

Stockholm 1912
en.wikipedia.org

Other proposals include: rotating the Games among several cities that have hosted the event-perhaps selecting five to symbolize the five interlocking rings of Olympic symbol or rotating them through one permanent venue on each of the continents.

Dartmouth classics professor Paul Christesen floated a more ambition scheme: use modern technology to stage a "decentered" Olympic Games-i.e. different cities simultaneously hosting the different events.  The athletes could travel to a neutral site (Lausanne or Olympia) for the opening and closing ceremonies.  This strategy could open up the possibility of hosts and cities  bidding to host sports that they are locally famous for.  A lot has changed since Baron de Coubertin's day.  Prof. Christesen argues that the games do not need to literally travel from one place to another to be international.  He said,

For example, Louisville, Kentucky-the site of the World Equestrian Championships in 2010-would be an ideal host for the equestrian events.  Likewise, Manchester, England, which boasts a world-class velodrome, would be a great place to hold the track-cycling events...

Rather than being an occasion for nationalistic displays by a single, powerful host country, the Olympics would become a celebration of humans diversity.  Television audience could tune into a tea-and-field competition in Nairobi, a badminton nation in Bangkok or a triathlon in Santiago.

Antwerp 1920
en.wikipedia.org

Sportswriter David Goldblatt added a more contemporary twist on the World Cup Soccer Tournament.  Distribute the hosting duties either within a "network of cities," within a specific country or among cities in the same region.  He writes,

While no city in Africa outside of Cape Town has been able to make a serious bid for the games recently, perhaps a cooperative bid spirit between urban centers-such as across Abidjan, Accra, Lago, and Douala-could succeed where other have failed.

All of these alternatives sound great and possibly feasible but they are far from perfect.  Regardless of the costs defrayed costs by the IOC and others, can any one city truly bear the burden of hosting a mega-event like the Olympic every four years?  Can we reasonably expect one city to serve as a permanent site, "...but then relinquish the right to host it and get all the glory."  Would "decentering" the Olympic Games make the competition more global by spreading out the host countries and less global by not gathering the athletes in a single location.

Paris 1924
britannica.com

Be that as it may, the serious issues facing Rio de Janeiro attest to the dangers of staying with the status quo.  One opponent of Boston's effort to host the 2024 Olympic Game describe it "...fundamental problem with the with the current Olympic model is that cities are being asked to host the world's most elaborate and complex event-and to do it only once."

Still, the status quo remains.  As promising as all of these proposals are, they are not likely to get any serious consideration from the IOC, which is profiting nicely from the current arrangement, even if most of the host city's residents are not.  In 2014, the International Olympic Committee working groups offered 40 ways to reform the Olympics.  Among the vague police are "reduce the cost of bidding for the games and 'maximise synergies with Olympic Movement stakeholder," but not a dramatic reconsideration of the way hosting works.  One hundred twenty years after Baron Pierre de Coubertin "played dumb" with King George of Greece, this act is still reaping benefits for a select few.