I wonder how much enthusiasm they'll generate. No spectators in Tokyo, and now some of the athletes are out because they're testing positive.

I wonder how much money this is going to cost Japan....

I was so happy and excited when the 2020 summer games was awarded to Tokyo as the host city, so of course last summer I was among the many people all over the world super disappointed... But now that the games are going forward, it's hard to want to even think about watching the opening ceremony and following the athletes and the various competitions.

There's a Japanese news/entertainment show I watch online, and they have been talking about the Olympics almost every week. This week, one of the commentators mentioned that Japan is probably the only country where the Olympics could go on in the middle of a pandemic, because in any other country, people would protesting in the streets and rioting to stop it. Whether that's true or not isn't really important, but I think the outwardly stoic impression that we get of Japan from news outside of Japan really doesn't show the whole story....

quote:

I wonder how much money this is going to cost Japan....

What I wonder is, what are the different kinds of "costs" that may end up arising...

One of my Japanese friends wrote me that most of the country is against the Olympics being held.

quote:

Originally posted by kluurs:
One of my Japanese friends wrote me that most of the country is against the Olympics being held.

I have yet to hear of anyone I know currently living in Japan (Japanese or otherwise) who supports the Olympics being held. Pretty much all local events (summer festivals, much loved national HS baseball tournaments etc.) have been canceled, so that makes it especially hard for people to accept.

And then this just popped up in my news feed:

Top Olympic sponsor Toyota pulls Games-related TV ads

Why a city/country wants to host the Olympics is a mystery....

https://www.investopedia.com/a...hosting-olympics.asp

quote:

Originally posted by wtg:
Why a city/country wants to host the Olympics is a mystery....

https://www.investopedia.com/a...hosting-olympics.asp

I was concerned when Chicago went for the 2016 Olympics. It seemed like a very bad idea. Of course, the mayor at that time seemed to have a propensity for expensive bad ideas.

The '84 Olympics in Los Angeles worked out fairly well, but it's an outlier.

I think it’s become too overwhelming and expensive for a city to host an Olympics. And that’s when there’s no epidemics acting as a damper. The Olympic committee should consider selecting a nation instead of a city. The Olympics events could then be distributed amongst multiple cities within a nation instead of just one city hosting them all which is more burdensome. For example: track and field events could be hosted in New York City, aquatic events could be hosted in Los Angeles, equestrian events could be hosted in Lexington, KY, etc.

Seems like geographically distributed events would kind of kill the original spirit of the Olympic Games, with athletes from all over the world mixing in one location. One Olympic Village, the opening and closing ceremonies, things like that.

But perhaps that ship sailed long before....and why I stopped watching them decades ago. These days it's much more about commercial opportunities than it is about athletic competition. I miss the commentators like Jim McKay, Chris Schenkel, and Dick Button...

I'm such an old fart.

I love the Olympics. It’s the only sporting event I really enjoy watching. I look forward to it every games. I prefer winter over summer, but love them both. I cry a handful of times each Olympic Games because I get really invested.

I am not excited AT ALL. I think there has been too much hardship and too many people having to make difficult choices in order to compete. Sports in general has become really tarnished in my mind because of the rampant racism. The World Cup certainly didn’t help the COVID situation, either. A colleague’s daughter is an athlete at the Olympics this year, and I still just can’t muster any enthusiasm.

quote:

Originally posted by Steve Miller:
The '84 Olympics in Los Angeles worked out fairly well, but it's an outlier.

Romney ran it like a business, and LA had lots of advantages ... beginning with 1932 facilities that could be updated.

quote:

Originally posted by Piano*Dad:

quote:

Originally posted by Steve Miller:
The '84 Olympics in Los Angeles worked out fairly well, but it's an outlier.

Romney ran it like a business, and LA had lots of advantages ... beginning with 1932 facilities that could be updated.

From the Financial Post (in reference to Calgary considering a 2026 bid way back in 2016)
Olympics are not only expensive, but also risky. According to recent work from researchers at the University of Oxford, every single Olympic Games since 1968 experienced substantial cost overruns. Every. Single. One.

On average, Olympics end up costing nearly triple their original estimate. To be sure, Winter Games aren’t as bad as Summer Games, but even they typically cost just over double their original estimate. According to these same researchers, Vancouver’s 2010 Games was the best performer — at 17 per cent over budget — while Calgary’s 1988 Games were 59 per cent over.

With no other type of large-scale project consistently claiming such a distinction, the researchers conclude that “for a city and nation to decide to host the Olympic Games is to take on one of the most financially risky type of megaproject that exists.” In any bid for 2026, absent unprecedented levels of accountability, we should be highly skeptical of initial cost claims.

https://financialpost.com/opin...ames-can-you-feel-it

I’m stoked and can’t wait.

I'm on the fence. I will definitely watch my favorite sports, but a lot of the decisions that the IOC or Tokyo or whoever have made strike me as nuts. Paralympic players not being allowed to bring their caregivers. Parents not being allowed to bring their children. Fights over women's shorts -- either too short or too long.

It seems like it's becoming more and more a political rather than an athletic endeavor.

They just selected Brisbane as the host city for the 2032 summer games, behind closed doors.

quote:

Paralympic players not being allowed to bring their caregivers

the situation with the swimmer is so upsetting. I thought it was an IOC thing, but this article makes it sound like the decision was on the side of the USOPC??

https://sports.yahoo.com/facin...usopc-131759064.html