Impacts of the Olympic games:does the host city really benefit from the Olympics

Abstract

The Olympic Games are the biggest sporting event worldwide. In the last twenty years, the interest of countries and cities in hosting the Games has increased considerably. This is mainly due to the perception that mega-events boost local economic and social status of the host city. Nevertheless, the fact is that Olympic events in the course of time demand for the construction of larger amount of Games amenities than ever before. This reality proved to be quite a heavy burden for the host city, the latter being the sole responsible for the building of the infrastructures. Yet, nations still vie for the winning bid to stage the Olympics in one of their cities. A review of literature shows that opinions about the benefits of the Olympic Games are diverged depending of the context. While some scholars emphasise on the good doing of the Games, there is indeed a minor part of literature that calls attention on the dark side of the Olympics, especially for the host city. This thesis aim is to examine whether the costs of hosting the Games outweigh its tangible and intangible benefits. The researcher investigates the financial, political and social costs versus the benefits of hosting the Olympics and explores how these can impact the host city. The professed benefits of hosting the London Olympics are also scrutinized with the goal to determine the impacts of the costs of hosting the London Olympics, especially in times where the world is in a global recession. Overall, the purpose of this project is to present the possible drawbacks of hosting the Olympics versus the various advantages that may be gained from the Games. The researcher concludes with suggestions on how to make hosting the Olympics a more cost-effective endeavour for their host communities.