The 2012 Summer
Olympic Games are currently underway in London amid much hype and fanfare. Parochial
and patriotic Brits are singing the praises of the host nation and promoting
their backyard to the world. There is little doubt that Summer Olympic Games are
the biggest sporting event in the world, but are the Games themselves a positive
or negative global event?
Staging the
Olympic Games requires a long and expensive commitment by the host city. First
it must prepare a bid in an attempt (there
is no guarantee) to win the rights to host the games, spend seven years
preparing for the Games if the bid is successful, successfully stage the
Olympic and then deal with the much longer post-Games era (Cashman 2002).
Other impacts
also include alterations in the design of the city, the representation of a
city/country and its culture, increased cost and taxes and changes in
governance and public decision-making (Cashman 2002).
However, the
staging of the Olympic Games leads to urban regeneration, increased housing
availability, improvements in public transport and local infrastructure, an increase
in international tourism and more jobs. Rose & Spiegel 2009 also
demonstrate how countries that host the Olympic Games enjoy a substantive
permanent increase in trade, known as the “Olympic Effect”.
So while there
are both positive and negative effects of hosting the Olympic Games, the
ability to showcase a city/country’s benefits to the world, as well as the
proven trade benefits to hosting the Games, means the Olympic Games are truly a
positive global event.
References:
Cashman,
R 2002, Impact of the Games on Olympic
host cities, CEO UAB, Retrieved 6th August 2012, <http://olympicstudies.uab.es/lectures/web/pdf/cashman.pdf>
Imperial
College London 2012, Political, social
and economic aspects of the Olympic games, Imperial College London,
Retrieved 6th August 2012, <http://olympics.pthimon.co.uk/index2.htm>
Rose,
A & Spiegel, M 2009, The Olympic
Effect, Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco Working Paper Series,
Retrieved 6th August 2012, <http://www.frbsf.org/publications/economics/papers/2009/wp09-06bk.pdf>
Good post! Was interesting to see you engage with both the positives and negatives of hosting the Olympics. You've done a good amount of research to back up your points too. I would have liked to see you consider more what the implications of the Olympics are on a global scale rather than limit yourself to observing the host nation. Are we justified in funding an Olympic team at all if we could spend the money elsewhere?
ReplyDeleteGreat post! I loved watching the London 2012 Olympics this year. There are many reasons as to why this is the case. You have clearly outlined some of these in your post. One reason which I believe should not be omitted is the exposure of the host country. Whilst London is no small town, not everyone has had the opportunity to travel there. The great thing about these games is the volume of events that were partaken in the iconic streets of London. I think it is a great way for people at home to explore and connect cities without having actually been there.
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