Before reading this article, please click "Follow", which is convenient for you to discuss and share, and can bring you a different sense of participation, thank you for your support.
Preface:
In '08, China was a great success in hosting the Olympic Games, and the people of the whole country were proud of it, because if that country could host an Olympic Games, it would prove the strength of this country to the world.
And the impact of the Olympics can also bring huge international trade benefits to the host country. But nothing is absolute, and two countries have brought down their economies by hosting the Olympic Games. This has also led to more countries being reluctant to host the Olympics.
The Olympic Organizing Committee decided to let China accept this hot potato and stood on the moral high ground, demanding that China, as an international power, should shoulder the responsibility of hosting the Olympic Games. Trying to get China to take over this "loss-making deal".
So which two countries lost money hosting the Olympics? Why has the Olympic Games, once symbolizing power, become a hot potato?
01
How arrogant it used to be, how miserable it is now
In 1976, after repeated failed bids, Canada finally succeeded in bidding for the Olympics, defeating the United States, Italy and other powerful countries and successfully qualified to host the Olympic Games. The venue for the 21st Olympic Games is Montreal, the capital of Canada.
At that time, Montreal decided to hold a super luxurious sports event far beyond the past, and someone asked with concern: "Invest so much, aren't you afraid of losing money in the end?"
At that time, the Montreal top brass declared to the public: "Losing money by hosting the Olympic Games? How is this possible, you see which time in the past Olympics lost money? There is absolutely no loss of money to host the Olympics, and now that the world is focused on us, we are going to do something earth-shattering. ”
But how can it be called the ultimate luxury in the world? Montreal's top management met to discuss and decide that first of all, this sports venue must be different, that is, the design of this venue must shock the jaws of all countries.
In order to achieve the goal of jaw dropping, Montreal invited the most famous French architect at the time, Roger Taliber, who was famous for his designs and was known as the "genius".
After deliberating, Roger Taliber's team proposed their own idea to Montreal to make a suspended building. The whole building is a shell, and the venue is supported by a leaning tower, which slowly unfolds from the shell, which is very visually striking and guarantees to make people's jaws drop.
This idea is incredible just to listen to, and it will surprise countries around the world if it were built. The Canadian government immediately said that it wanted this plan, and we would provide what was needed! Just one meaning, not bad money!
But the reality is often brutal, and when construction actually begins, the Canadian government realizes that this thing takes too much time. The Olympics are about to open, and the pavilion has not yet been built, but it is too late to redraw the plan, so I can only bite the bullet.
Another problem that gradually surfaced was that the budget was not enough, and the Canadian government prepared $2.8 billion to think that it would be enough, but as the project progressed, it ended up spending $5.8 billion.
This made Canada's finances, already in the Great Depression, even worse, and under the huge fiscal deficit, there was no way, and the Canadian government had to finish it hastily.
If the money is not in place, the work will not be done well. The Canadian government has also taken the lead in cutting some of its spending, using the inferior ones without the best, and not using them if they can, striving to keep money to the minimum.
As a result, there were various problems during the competition, the track and field was too hard, the water quality in the swimming pool was problematic, and many athletes had severe diarrhea and vomiting after entering the water.
This caused dissatisfaction among athletes from various countries participating in the Olympic Games, and the name Montreal became notorious for a while. In just 15 days, Montreal lost $2.4 billion and incurred $1 billion in debt.
What about this? The wool came out of the sheep, and the Canadian government had to increase taxes and start collecting taxes from all aspects of life. The Canadian government is trying to impose the country's debt entirely on the people.
The reason given by the Montreal government is that the good news brought by the Olympic Games such as tourism and trade is the credit of the government, so some "Olympic special taxes" should be paid.
Then Montreal, after 30 years of exploiting the city's citizens, finally paid off its debts, and people gave the incident a name, "The Montreal Trap."
30 years of debt kept Montreal in a downturn, which undoubtedly proved that the Canadian government's decision at the time was completely wrong, but this "Montreal trap" did not warn future generations.
02
The largest Olympic Games
In 2004, the Greek government vigorously promoted the Athens Games in order to obtain greater benefits from the Athens Olympic Games, and held the largest Olympic Games in the history of the Olympic Games.
According to statistics, there were 202 countries participating in that Olympic Games alone, and the number of athletes was exaggerated by more than 10,000.
It was supposed to be a good day to showcase the culture and spirit of the country and revive the country's economy, but the Olympics, which were attended by so many people, ended in a farce.
At that time, the economy was very sluggish, and Athens was like relying on the Olympics to make a big deal and stimulate the domestic economy. But the global economy is sluggish, and advertisers are simply not recruited, advertising revenue has plummeted, and funds for building venues are stretched.
Due to the existence of Montreal, the Athenian government did not make a difference, and invited international big-name designers; Instead, an international contractor was hired to build the main venue and build other infrastructure and equipment.
However, due to the limited funds, coupled with the economic downturn, prices are rising, the original budget only gave the main venue 300 million US dollars, but the cost was as high as 800 million US dollars, plus the construction of other venue infrastructure, the budget directly exploded.
This overrun not only affected the budget, but also buried hidden dangers for the preparation of the Olympic Games in the future.
During the Athens Games, the continuous high temperature and high humidity made Athens like a huge steamer, which seriously affected the competition, and a large number of competitions were cancelled or postponed.
There were no games to watch, and the weather was very bad that tourists felt very dissatisfied, and a large number of tourists began to leave Athens, the site of the Olympic Games.
The departure of tourists has left the tourism industry with a lot of money, and because of the postponement of the competition, it has increased a lot of the operating costs of the competition. And in order to protect the more than 10,000 athletes and the remaining spectators, the Athens government has increased security investment.
Greece, which thought it could turn over by the Olympics, did not expect such a big loss, according to statistics, Athens invested a staggering $15 billion in the Olympics, but only recovered $5 billion in the end.
This is equivalent to a loss of $10 billion, which also makes Greece's economy sluggish again, and saddled with a huge debt of 10 billion yuan, arguably the most failed Olympic Games.
03
Hosting the Olympics is a double-edged sword
In order to repay the debt, the Greek government embarked on a ten-year journey to repay the debt, and it took a full decade to pay off all the debts, and Greece was also deeply affected by this debt and fell out of the ranks of the world's powers.
The stadiums that cost Greece tens of billions of assets, all kinds of sports facilities have long been overgrown with weeds and full of garbage. The long-term unmanaged and repaired appearance was exceptionally dilapidated. Greece has been deeply affected so far.
In fact, hosting the Olympics is mostly profitable, such as the 1984 United States hosting the Olympics, which ended up raising $225 million, and then the 1992 Spanish Olympics also made the Spanish government a lot of money.
The success was undoubtedly the Sydney Olympics in 2000, which was called the most profitable Olympics in history.
Sydney spent a total of $1.74 billion and earned a total of $2.43 billion during the Olympics. Local tourism has also grown significantly.
It is some money that will lead to the subsequent Montreal and Athens incidents, both of which are in order to make money, but as a result, their country is plunged into a huge economic crisis.
Looking back at history, there are so many countries that have hosted the Olympic Games, and so many Olympic Games have been held, and only a few countries have made money in the Olympic Games.
Even the 08 Beijing Olympic Games, which ranked first in history, suffered a slight loss when building bird's nests, but as long as there is a good plan and reasonable operation, it can rationally use its own funds to host the Olympic Games, which China has done well.
At that time, in order to show China's strength to the world, show the Chinese spirit to the world, and make sufficient preparations for the Olympic Games, the Bird's Nest, as an important urban construction, is not only a venue for the Olympic Games, but also a business card of China.
After the Olympic Games, the operating costs of the Bird's Nest are still particularly high, but as a business card handed by China to the world, it has greatly promoted the development of China's tourism industry.
Tourism has brought a lot of money to the nest, and these funds will also be used for the daily maintenance of the nest, which can also be used as a symbol of sports competitions, greatly promoting Chinese sports.
04
China told the World Olympics that it should be like this
Although the nest was losing money at the time, it played a positive role in economic and cultural aspects in the days to come. It can enrich the cultural connotation of the city and also stimulate the development of urban tourism.
Under China's reasonable planning, Bird's Nest can provide continuous support for the development of Beijing and make its own positive role in building a beautiful city.
The role of the bird's nest can not only be expressed in economic terms, but also from other aspects, as a developing country, China's hosting of the Olympic Games can carry forward the national spirit, publicize Chinese culture, improve international status, and enhance international image.
It can be said that the Bird's Nest is a proof that China is strong to show the world, and hosting the Olympic Games can also greatly strengthen the people's national pride and enhance the people's patriotism.
The Olympics should be a platform to showcase themselves to the world, not a tool for money. Today's Olympic Games are heavily commercialized, although this brings additional economy to athletes and gives them more financial resources.
But the huge investment also makes some countries dare not touch the Olympics, because they completely regard the Olympics as a transaction, they hope to make a lot of money through the Olympics, and they do not touch the Olympics that do not make money. This is not right.
Epilogue:
I hope that everyone who loves sports can keep a normal heart to view the Olympic Games and contribute to the sports cause, so that the sports cause can be better and better.