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| World Marketplace |
Fool's Gold?
Lionel Beehner
03/01/2008
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The actual site-selection process is highly secretive; Hamakawa
likens it to the College of Cardinals’ selecting a pope. It is clear that the
infrastructure requirements that the IOC sets are so high that many midsize
cities do not make the cut. One of the reasons that Los Angeles turned a profit
is that—unlike, say, Montreal—the city already had major sporting facilities in
place. "When you’re spending billions of dollars to build lavish stadiums,"
Matheson says, "there’s no way the short-term economic impact can possibly hope
to pay for all the construction."
The Roar of Construction
Moreover, cities are increasingly burdened with exorbitant
security costs. Athen’s 2004 Olympics burned $8 billion—$1.5 billion on
security—earning itself the unfortunate moniker "My Big Fat Greek Games." And
tourism in Athens virtually collapsed in the run-up to the games. "Who wants to
go to a construction site?" Matheson asks.
That should serve as a warning to Beijing, where tourists now
see a skyline dotted with construction cranes and scaffolding. When it comes to
relying on capital from sponsors, however, China is doing things right—at least
if enthusiasts do not mind an Olympics in which corporate logos outnumber the
appearances of the five interlocking rings. In fact, Beijing has a record in the
works, with more than $42 billion pledged from 54 sponsors to date, according to
the Malaysia Star. Indeed, there is speculation that when the International
Olympic Committee was divided on giving the games to Beijing because of China’s
human-rights record, sponsors eager to bring their messages to the 1.3 billion
consumers in China exerted enough pressure to tip the decision.
Even so, Beijing—along with London in its plan for the 2012
games—is trying a hybrid approach to funding, combining commercial sponsors with
some publicly financed construction that the city hopes will return a profit.
The goal is for the 2008 games to fare far better financially than the 2004
games in Athens, where city officials made a conscious decision to scale back
commercialization in keeping with the dignity of the birthplace of the Olympics.
On the other hand, the cities want a more unobtrusive appearance than that of
Atlanta’s 1996 games, which were derided by some as the "Coca-Cola Olympics."
However, Atlanta turned a $300 million profit.
There is also the question of what Beijing will do with its
costly sports facilities after the games are history. "Gigantism is on the way
out," notes Robert Colvile, a columnist with London’s Observer, "in
favor of ‘compact’ Olympics, leaving genuinely useful facilities and urban
regeneration rather than white-elephant stadium complexes." Beijing has followed
that trend only in part. Of 31 structures that will be devoted to the Olympics,
11 are being built to last and eight will be temporary; the other venues already
exist, although some will undergo conversions. The Bird’s Nest will be scaled
down by several thousand seats after the games, but even so, an empty nest after
the Olympics could become a rather embarrassing symbol of excess.
Lionel Beehner is a freelance writer based in New
York.
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