It’s Time To Rescue The Olympics and The World from The IOC
This is a story of how the International Olympic Committee’s drive for spectacle and multi-billion-dollar broadcast revenues is driving devastating social and economic impacts on host countries — It’s Time to Rescue the Olympics and the World from the IOC.
The IOC is focused on broadcast revenues only which is their main source of income. This is why the IOC requires hosting cities to provide shiny new sports facilities, and hotel accommodation for 40,000 visitors: requirements that sell spectacle to broadcasters, but which impose on hosting cities massive infrastructure commitments.
In response, countries are committing tens of billions of dollars to Olympics infrastructure projects using flawed cost/benefit forecasts influenced by vested interests, often diverting public funds for health, education, and transport to fund Olympic commitments. Following the games, cities were often left with large deficits that took decades to pay-off, and which required cuts to public services such as health, education, and transport. The economic impact on countries can be devastating: the cost of hosting the 2004 Athens Olympics contributed to the Greek debt crisis.
In addition, over the past 50 years, over two million people have lost their homes due to Olympic games infrastructure development and…
