Why Athens has lived to regret hosting the Olympic Games

[marmar]

from the Toronto Star:



ATHENS—For Babis Bilinis, the legacy of the 2004 Athens Olympics is this depressing walk to the Aegean Sea.

Carefully, first, across the four lanes of a road that still lacks the pedestrian crossing the government promised. Across the tracks of the light-rail line that runs where the beach used to begin. Under a low bridge, past the homeless Roma who spend their days in its shadows, into the abandoned 25,000-square-metre patch of dirt and scrub that used to be sea.

Finally, down two steep steps, to the cement waterfront boardwalk that leads toward the Games’ 9,600-seat beach volleyball stadium — which has also been abandoned, weeds growing unchecked through its once-pristine sand, bird droppings staining its concourses, its folding seats flapping in the coastal breeze. You can walk right in.

The Greek government wanted to build other Games venues on this reclaimed seaside property beside the volleyball stadium. After a fight from Bilinis’ community activist group, the government plunked the buildings elsewhere, then erected a fence around the prime land. In 2006, Bilinis’ group and hundreds of supporters tore the fence down. But save for the Roma and a few hardy recreational fishermen, the land remains unused — like numerous other Olympic facilities and properties in Athens. ...............(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.thestar.com/news/world/article/1229485--why-athens-has-lived-to-regret-hosting-the-olympic-games

[ChairmanAgnostic]

1. Pick two sites, make them permanent.

Greece is fine for summer, the Alps or Colorado for the winter games.

Forget moving them around, forget forcing cities, states, countries, have to rush in to fix their problems at high cost, with little reward or benefit.

[leftyohiolib]

2. why not just dump the olympics.

[nichomachus]

4. +1

[Retrograde]

7. Or scale them way back

Get rid of the team sports - most of them have their own championships anyway - and anything based on judges' opinions rather than objective measures of who can jump highest, throw farthest, or cross a finish line first. Cut back the made-for-TV events.

Or spread the wealth/pain around: do the boating events really have to be in the same city - or even the same time zone - as the the track and field ones? Pick a few sites that already have the appropriate facilities and rotate among them.

[KurtNYC]

3. Sarajevo is a make shift cemetary

Montreal has to pay maintenance on their empty stadium to keep it from falling down.

The Olympics are a decadent display that leave expensive buildings and velodromes as garbage for taxpayers to deal with long after all the corporate-sponsored athletes have gone.

No fiscally responsible or environmentally city should be forced to host.

They could go to the same place every 4 years. Maybe have a guest host so that still rotates.

[Rabid_Rabbit]

5. Or use available facilities

Facilities that exist should be used for the olympic events and let a country host the olympics not just a city, like the World Cup.

[nichomachus]

6. Olympics were a good idea when it was a bunch of amateurs

Now that it's professional athletes posing as amateurs in a super-commercial operations, it's just nonsense.

In London, for crying out loud, food sellers can't sell french fries, because McDonalds, a major sponsor, forbids it. Only they can sell french fries.

The same thing happened with things like the Boston Marathon. Used to be a great event with local runners, people you knew, many of whom had regular jobs besides, and it was a great amateur event.

Then, the pros come in. Some guy flies into town from dog knows where, stays a couple of nights, runs the marathon, wins, collects his money, jumps on a plane, and you don't see him again until next year. Who the hell cares who wins?