A lot of recent literature has covered the tremendous costs of hosting the Olympic games, which begs the question: why would a city (or country) want to host them?

For one, the Olympics are one of the biggest sporting events in the world, rivaled only by theFédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) World Cup. The 2016 Olympics claimed that 3.7 billion people engaged with the Games at some point. The 2014 World Cup claimed 3.2 billion viewers, with a cool one billion watching the final itself.

These are numbers any national marketing department would salivate at. Indeed, the Summer Olympics in Barcelona in 1992 were credited with kickstarting a cultural revival in the city, which eventually threw off the shackles of the fascist Franco era.

The costs of hosting the Olympics depends on the country itself. Developing economies require more infrastructure upgrades. From Greece to Beijing to Rio, the costs of upgrading stadiums, roads, public transit and all the other assorted segments of the economy were far higher than those in London, Vancouver and Sydney. Richer countries also have more rigid institutions that counter corruption in the construction industry.

The Maracanã Stadium in Rio de Janeiro, where much of the 2016 Summer Olympics were held. (Photo by

Greece’s Olympic Games is especially instructive. Hosting the Olympics in 2004 has been consistently cited as one of the root causes of the Greek economic tragedy in the late 2000s. Conservatively, it is estimated those games cost the Greek government over 7 billion euros, while the International Olympic Committee (IOC) made a handsome 985-million euro profit. Greece is still trying to recover, while the IOC is happily planning the next games.

A game of bribes

Authoritarian regimes have historically used sporting events for propaganda. The Chinese used the Summer Olympics in 2008 to emphasize their position as a new global power and spent a mind-boggling $44 billion on the games – including an audacious attempt to control the weather by firing chemical bullets into the sky. Not to be outdone, the Russians spent $51 billion on the Sochi Games in 2014.

(W)hy would a city (or country) want to host (the Olympics)?

The Argentine Junta bribed the entire nation of Peru at the 1978 World Cupthey knew winning the World Cup would pacify their people. In the weeks leading up to that World Cup, dozens of prominent Argentine journalists disappeared. The only press was good press.

Hitler used the Olympics in 1936 as a massive propaganda campaign, within two years of hosting, Germany invaded Poland. In a stark parallel, within months of hosting the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia invaded Crimea.

So if you want to host the Olympics, and you have the funds to upgrade your infrastructure, there is one final obstacle: the actual bidding process. You submit your bid to the IOC and then wait – that is, if you are honorable. If you are realistic, you are supposed to bribe enough officials on the IOC to vote for your city.

This has happened time and time again. From Nagano, to Salt Lake City, to Rio to Tokyo in 2020, Olympic officials were bribed to vote for host cities. Salt Lake City lost the Olympics to Nagano, Japan in 1998 because they did not pay enough bribes. One Japanese consortium promised $20 million to help build a state-of-the-art museum in Switzerland for the IOC. In response, a businessman in Salt Lake City paid $400,000 to fifteen IOC members to guarantee the 2002 Olympic Games. The same thing happens with the World Cup – which has been the subject of heavy scrutiny over the last few years.

On top of it all, the IOC enforces laws to appease their corporate sponsors. This was especially pernicious before the London Olympic Games, when words like “gold,” “silver” and “Olympics” were banned from advertising, unless advertisers were one of the few corporate sponsors of the Games. A University in Derby made a sign before the Olympics in London that read, “Supporting the London Olympics.” It was taken down because it violated the marketing rules.

Construction of Olympic Park for the 2012 Summer Olympic Games in London began in 2009. (Photo by Nigel Chadwick)

The host city must also sanitize before the world descends, which creates a number of social issues. Homeless people were moved out in droves before the Olympics in Vancouver in 2010. Forced evictions were a feature of Rio’s preparations for the 2016 Olympics.

The Olympics are essentially a front for the corporate class to market their products and run away with the profits. The host city pays off the IOC, then the marketing and television rights are sold to a few large multinationals. There is no transparency at the IOC – they claim 90 per cent of the profits goes to the National Olympic Committees, who supposedly disburse the money to the athletes themselves. This cannot be true, as Canadian athletes live in poverty and can barely afford to train. All the while the Canadian Olympic Committee depends on taxpayer money.

Where does the money go?

The IOC themselves justify all of this, in their terms, as behaviour “for the good of sport.”

To quote an IOC official:

“The IOC only enters into partnerships with organizations that it believes work in accordance with the values of the Olympic Movement. The IOC notes that both Coca-Cola and McDonald’s are long standing sponsors and are involved in educational programmes to promote healthy lifestyles.”

I’ll pause for laughter.

So why do we watch the Olympics and the World Cup? It is because, I believe, sports are one of the few global institutions that foster multilateralism and internationalism in a world characterized by nativism and nationalism.

Sports and athletics are fairly universal and relatable. Plus, it is just plain fun to watch skilled athletes perform their craft at the highest level in the spirit of competition and co-operation. It is too bad the men in charge (yes, it is almost entirely old – and white – men) are much more interested in lining their own pockets.

By Rashid Mohiddin


Rashid Mohiddin is Chief Executive with Pressed Magazine, a society and culture magazine in Toronto, Ontario.

This is the fourth article in  #OlympicOpinions, an Opinions takeover week that explores everything about the Olympics. 

Please note that opinions expressed are the author’s own. They do not necessarily reflect the views and values of The Blank Page.

 

See the first featured articles of #OlympicOpinions here:

Olympic Opinions: The good, the bad and Olympic Games

Olympic Opinions: The Olympics as a mirror of our changing world

Olympic Opinions: Amateurs, doping and the evolution of the Olympian

Olympic Opinions: Faster, higher and stronger routes to corruption and bribery