Big Sporting Events: !A Colossal Waste of Money

Photo Source: The Atlantic Cities

Emilia Spitz Leeds University, November 2013

Why countries that cannot leverage off infrastructure should not bid to host big sporting events

Photo Source: Jornal Atual

What Can Go !Well?

True tourists might stay away (Ex: 10% drop in summer tourism,

Athens 2004) Brazil is high profile enough anyway

Increase in Tourism, Raised Profile

Job Creation & Boost to the Economy

Stefan Szymanski (Soccernomics): “Short Term Impact Only”

Long Term Legacy Barcelona + Sydney + London

(Olympics) + Germany (World Cup) = all cities/countries with existing

infrastructure

Photo Source: Anne Thorne Architects

What Can Go Wrong?

Low Quality Construction due to strained workforce

Rushed Planning, Poor Delivery, Overruns

Bad PR Brazil (recent protests),

Commonwealth Games in India (not enough showers for the athletes!)

White Elephant Syndrome

High Maintenance Costs

WSJ Study: “21 out of 22 venues in

Athens now empty/wasted”

South Africa: Cape Town, etc.

Photo Source: ABC Parish Blog

By The Numbers:

Andrew Zimbalist (The Economics of Mega Sporting Events): “Nearly half of the revenue goes to the organizations [FIFA, IOC]”

South Africa WC: recouped 1/10th of cost

Brazil WC estimate = 3x Germany WC

Rio 2016 estimate = 3x London 2012 budget

Data Source: Andrew Zimbalist, Americas Quarterly

Image Source: Blacknight & Rugs to My Door

In Conclusion:

Photo Source: io9 “After the Games...”

An Expensive Mistake “The answer does not lie in holding a one-off sporting event”

Former India Sports Minister & MP Mani Shankar at Intelligence Squared (Kiev, 2010)