Why no one wants to host the Olympics

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Published 2024-07-18
and should there be a permanent host?
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The Olympics are in a crisis – no one wants to host the Games anymore. After decades of fierce competitions, only 2 cities ended up in contention for the 2024 Games; Paris and LA. Worried that no one would bid for 2028, the Olympics gave them both a Games. This video will use economic data, archive, and expert analysis to explain how the most prestigious sporting event in the world got too far over its skis and how it plans to get cities interested in hosting again.

Special thanks to Andrew Zimbalist.

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All Comments (21)
  • They used to utilize mostly existing facilities. Now they build dorms & venues. It's insanely wasteful.
  • Isn't it time for the corrupt IOC to start paying cities to host game?
  • @Azamat78726
    Why olympics are hosted by only 1 city instead of whole country ? Hosting it as a country might solve some issues like infrastructure and environment.
  • @rody2k6
    As a Brazilian and resident of Rio , I can confirm that our Olympic legacy is bullshit. Even Maracanã stadium which was shown in this video with horrible pitch took a few years after the game to finally be stabilized. I went to the games and found it awesome but the lasting effects were and are complete crap
  • @lukemullet
    Slight correction on London. They originally said there wouldn't be a football team in the stadium and would be used for athletics only. They soon realised though that it wouldn't be financially viable and practically handed the stadium to a football team just so they didn't have huge costs each year.
  • @lordmusea
    At this point, why would any country want to host the Olympics? There’s little, if any, economic benefit to the host country. The costs are outrageous to prepare, it inconveniences the locals, and the IOC is basically a criminal racket at this point. 🤷‍♂️
  • @kirbyrules55
    I live "in" LA. the 1984 olympics were so sucessful that they made a fund for under privileged kids to give them really cheap tennis lessons. I used to teach those. The charge was 10 dollars for 4 1-hour lessons for 6 weeks, so 24 total lessons, group style. Now-a-days group lessons are 30 a piece or more and more than 100 an hour for a private lessons so you can understand how cheap 10 dollars is for 24 lessons. The LA 84 olympics' fund paid for the rest. This fund STILL EXISTS in 2024 and kids still get to benefit from it across LA, meaning hundreds of lessons each week.
  • My econ professor told our class how he was hired by the city of boston to consult them about the potential pros and cons of an olympic bid they were considering. He didnt give a recommendation of either going forward with the bid or not, but he said that within 48 hours they had withdrawn their bid for the olympics. That was all I needed to know lol.
  • @tarik6990
    Hosting the Olympics is a major luxury today compared to 30-40 years ago.
  • @Mystipaoniz
    8:31 "It puts your city on the map...." Yeah because nobody ever heard of Paris, Los Angeles, Beijing.... I wonder how does that makes an argument. It's not like the olympics are hosted in a small village, that actually needs to be put on the map.
  • A big problem ive always had is that the IOC doesnt take project sustainability into account when picking host cities.They keep picking cities that dont need all these new facilities and projects and investment. So it just ends up as a waste. I said for the last 2 decades that Buffalo, NY would make an amazing Olympic venue practicality wise. Make it a joint games between Buffalo and Toronto. Toronto builds a new baseball stadium they want. The Buffalo Bills get a new football stadium they want. The Sabers can get the new arena they want. University at Buffalo gets the stadium they want. And the olympic village can be built at the University at Buffalo to serve as replacements for some of their older dorm buildings after the games. And the city could use the infrustructure investment to get itself back on its feet. Thats 8 stadiums and a village right there. After the games, the existing 4 stadiums could be torn down. Nothing would be wasted at the end of the day. All the stadiums have teams waiting to occupy them afterward. The village has a tenant afterwards. But whatever, just hit LA again
  • LA is unique in that it already has almost every venue needed for the summer games. The only expensive things they are building are long overdue improvements to public transportation.
  • @bubbabear244
    The Big Owe in Montreal for the 1976 Olympics didn't pay off their debt on the Stade Olympique until 2004. It's not being used regularly as the Als and CFM play elsewhere where they don't need a 65k seat venue.
  • @ulizez89
    The IOC learned nothing from their greek history, they sinned of hubris and now they are here.
  • There isn't a strong demand to host because while the IOC stands to make billions from broadcasting right and advertising, the cities that host them are usually left in debt.
  • @RoboJules
    Sometimes those costs are a good thing if they're spent well. With Vancouver, everything we built was designed to be used by the public years after the Olympics. The Canada Line is an extremely successful transit line linking the Airport and Richmond to Downtown, which currently serves 150k riders a day. The Sea to Sky highway upgrades are very well appreciated and has allowed Squamish to become a major satellite city. All of the local Olympic venues were turned into really nice community centers that are currently so crowded that the city needs to start building more. The Olympic village has become a vibrant transit oriented waterfront community. The point I'm making is that the infrastructure being built cannot be single use, but must be designed to build and grow the city itself. Vancouver used the Olympics as an excuse to build important infrastructure instead of the other way around.
  • @BooksRebound
    Barcelona, Toronto and New York being nowhere near their actual location on the map is really sending me 😂
  • There's really only one city I've heard of that loved hosting the Olympics, it was Salt Lake in the 2002 winter ganes. It was very similar to the LA model, but new infrastructure was built. The difference is that all that new infrastructure is still in use. Students still stay in the Olympic Village when they attend the University of Utah. The difference is SLC was a growing city as opposed to an established one. Would be hard ro replicate in another city, but not an imposible one.
  • @kittypewpew
    VIDEO IDEA: Cheerleading and the company varsity that has a monopoly on it. They dont want it classified as a sport, because it would be more costly.
  • @luapslev5826
    I'm surprised Qatar, Saudi Arabia or the UAE haven't been selected to host an Olympics. They'll spend about $1T on a sporting event easily