OLYMPICS–WHAT MUST CHANGE!
It is in the nature of human activities to eventually change with new improved technology, and the presentation of the winter and summer Olympics every four years must change NOW . The technology I refer to is the magnificent ability to present the sporting events on T.V. Up to the present, cities throughout the world, with the help of their national governments have fought to present the magnificent spectacle. It was always in the interests of well-placed people, in a designated country, to benefit financially and politically. All you have to do is look at the stadium the Brazilians built. But at present, the growth of the facilities, for all the different sports involved, have become completely uneconomical and unreasonable for cities and the countries. The 2018 winter Olympics are slated for the South Korean city of Pyeungchang. The 2022 winter Olympics have only 2 contenders left, Beijing in China and Almaty in Kazakhstan out of the many that originally applied. A political person would immediately realize the people of China and Kazakhstan did not vote to have them there. I note that Munich, St Moritz, Stockholm and Krakow who originally bid for the 2022 winter Olympics withdrew, and these cities are all in democratic states where the people have a lot of influence. Both China and Kazakhstan, not really democratic states, have their image to repair and the costs involved in presenting the event are of no consequence. The 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens nearly bankrupted Greece and the facilities left behind are in disrepair and not used at all. Changes for this popular event must happen.
Why are Olympics held? It feeds the nationalistic ego of each country and their athletes ,and the idea of being in the company of the “world`s best” tickles the egos of all involved, both the nation and the athletes. Also people are naturally competitive and the athletes want to see just how good they really are, compared to others.The problems lie in the cost of building the facilities to house boxing, wrestling, basketball, marathons, golf, gymnastics, cycling, canoeing and fencing and that does not even get close to listing all the sports, and the cost of buildings to house the athletes and the security staff needed to fight terrorism and petty crime. I assume the officials and the equipment used to monitor the running of the sports are paid for by the Olympic organization. Small and poor countries in the future will not even think of holding the games, and shortly, even the large and rich will take a pass.
How many people actually attend the Olympics or at least how many tickets were sold? In 2012 in the London summer games, 9 million tickets were sold over the period of 2 weeks but tickets went to companies and for many events the seats were empty. Except for the opening and closing spectacles, at most events there were thousands of empty places. On T.V. however in 2002 Salt Lake City showed 25.5 million viewers and in 2008 Beijing 34.9 million views were recorded and it is fair to say in many cases more than one person is viewing the event when the show is on. The 2012 summer games in London were the most watched event in U.S. T.V. history. The excitement of the Olympics is created by the crowds yelling encouragement to their favourites . We need people watching. The crowds in the stadium even create excitement for the T.V. viewers but it is obvious economically, that the summer and winter games CAN rotate after 12 years at one location, and the event should still take place every four years at this same location. It would also cut down on the bribing necessary to get the event held in any particular city. T.V. makes the Olympics for the world, and not changing the location every four years makes political and financial sense. Rotate the event every 12 years between continents, and that would still keep the whole world involved.
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