The average cost overrun of a modern Olympics is 252 per cent, according to Andrew Zimbalist, author of Circus Maximus: The Economic Gamble Behind Hosting the Olympics and the World Cup. Notwithstanding the fact that a good time may be had by all, Zimbalist says, the promised economic returns never arrive.
Oslo was only the last among several sensible European cities — Stockholm, Munich, Krakow, Davos — to withdraw their bids to host the 2022 Winter Games in the face of public resistance and IOC arrogance. Ergo Beijing, again. Neither cost nor public opinion matter in what has become the natural territory of the modern Olympic Games.
Meanwhile in Ontario, taxpayers just spent $450 million on the four most expensive venues for the Pan Am Games, none of which will be good enough for the Olympics, all of which will have to be replaced by larger facilities if Toronto hopes to host in 2024. There is a long list of new stadiums and every variety of gold-plated facility to be built.
“Separate lanes should be created on all roads where IOC members will travel, which are not to be used by regular people or public transportation,” the Olympic grandees informed the Norwegians before they were sent packing last fall.
Are these the people we want to run our the city for the next decade, substituting their own agenda for ours, deciding what gets built and what gets shelved, picking winners and painting out losers, leaving behind grandiose relics and a (minimum) $15-billion tab?
Faced with the same questions, many non-imperial cities are now saying no. Toronto should pay attention.
