A giant stadium stands empty, its paint gently peeling. A village nearby is vacant and deserted. It may sound like the result of war or a natural disaster, but it is just Olympic leftovers.
The Olympics are the crown jewel of sports and a universal symbol of unity. Over 200 countries come together every four years to participate in awe-inspiring duels and competition. Every country seems to want to host the event, to have fans and competitors stream into their cities and spend money at their establishments. It may be the height of sports, but it's also a perfect way to show off how established and gleaming your country is.
The economic boost that is so coveted, however, is often as unfulfilled as the dreams of athletes who go home empty handed. The initial prospect looks promising. Stadiums have to be built, creating jobs for thousands of workers, and then staffed with even more people. But the costs are great. Recent Olympics have cost up to $40 billion dollars each, an enormous sum that citizens often end up paying in the form of taxes or fees.
Then come the Games. For 16 days, the fans and athletes flock to the site and the city does reap enormous benefits. From lodging to restaurants, souvenir shops and local businesses, the coffers are filled with money. Yet here too the costs rise. Security concerns, especially in violent countries, require throngs of police. Police increase expenses, but their overloaded presence at the Olympics can make the country even more unsafe. A family friend was working in China on archeology digs, and the summer of the Beijing Olympics he was advised to leave the country for his own safety; there just wouldn't be any police left in his area.
And then suddenly it's over. When the final note of the closing ceremonies has faded away, the athletes have won their medals, and the fans have all gone home, the gorgeous complex is worthless. The Beijing Olympics' "Bird's Nest" today sits empty; the Olympics that were to bring the country enormous financial prosperity have disappeared and taken the events with them. Now, the 80,000-person-capacity stadium has only one event each year with fewer than 10,000 people in attendance.
Some countries are able to use their Olympic facilities, but that is only if they are lucky enough to have a major sports team or a University willing to use the space. The Atlanta Falcons now use the stadium from the 1996 Olympic summer games and the Olympic village has been taken over by the University of Georgia. Such circumstances are rare. It isn't just the stadiums that are deserted; the empty hotels and unused new transportation facilities are worthless too.
The 2016 Olympics will be held for the first time in Rio de Janeiro, a city that has tried hard to receive the publicity and the honor of the games for years. Many of their stadiums are already built, so they may not have the same monetary problems that have befallen the Olympics in the past, yet by 2017 their newfound glory will probably be gone. Today, Rio de Janeiro has few hotels, but once the promised hotels are built, they'll remain deserted after the games are over. If there is no need for hotels now, there won't be any need after the games.
The dignitaries competing for the Olympics this year all had the best intentions for their countries in mind. Yet those who went home without the prize aren't necessarily missing too much. Maybe instead they can invest that $40 billion in sustainable economic projects - projects where jobs will last longer than four years, and taxes will go down, not up. Some people in Rio de Janeiro will certainly benefit from the investment in their community, and everyone will be proud of their country's emergence on the big stage.
But when it's all over, the Olympics are perfect for sports, not for curing the economic problems that haunt countries. When the glory is gone, all that remains will be memory of glitter, and the leftovers sitting idly in the city. Build it and they will come, but they won't stay.
Hayley Trahan-Liptak is a staff columnist for The Heights. She welcomes comments at htrahan-liptak@bcheights.com.
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CSOM ‘92