Olympics: Biggest scam in sports??

With the Olympic RR talk, I could not help but think a little about the bamboozle that is the Olympics.

The cost for exclusive media coverage in the U.S. for the 2008 Olympics was a little under a billion dollars if I remember right. The total money brought in by media contracts across the world is many billions. The Olympics do not pay the athletes anything. The athletes are left to sponge off the taxpayer or, for some fringe sports, their families. The venues are constructed by the host country at a cost of billions. China spent more than $40 billion building its facilities, a figure that works out to about $3 billion per day of Olympics. London's cost has ballooned to near $20 billion. The Olympics contributes nothing toward the construction costs. On top of that IOC members get to collect bribes from potential host countries. So where does the money taken in go?

To make matters worse, more and more pro athletes are competing, which allows the Olympics to profit from the pros' image without paying anything in return.

The Olympics look like a cynical play on nationalism to make a buck. It seems like the perfect scam. They get to collect big money while all the costs are covered by others.

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"You are like the wind and I like the lion. You form the tempest. The sand stings my eyes and the ground is parched. I roar in defiance but you do not hear. But between us there is a difference. I, like the lion, must remain in my place. While you like the wind will never know yours." -- Mulay Hamid El Raisuli, Lord of the Riff, Sultan to the Berbers, Last of the Barbary Pirates

Olympic Marketing Revenue Distribution 2001-2004

The IOC distributes approximately 92% of Olympic marketing revenue to organisations throughout the Olympic Movement to support the staging of the Olympic Games and to promote the worldwide development of sport. The IOC retains approximately 8% of Olympic marketing revenue for the operational and administrative costs of governing the Olympic Movement.

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I have my doubts. I don't think I would trust anything from the IOC.

Even with their figures, they kept $320 million in a four year period. What do they need the money for? To fly around the world, living the good life while being courted by potential host countries? The amount of money shared with host companies is a pittance compared to the cost. They claim $700M to Athens, but the total cost to Greece has been estimated at $15B. The host countries don't even get to collect all the ticket sales.

Of the money that goes to promote sport, how much ends up in the hands of corrupt feds like the UCI and its constituent organizations. From what I have seen, most of these national sporting feds seem to be corrupt, no matter what the sport is. It is a sordid system of insiders who have longstanding connections to each other, whether they are former Olympians, coaches, or organizers and promoters of previous Olympic games. It looks like a situation where the insiders all get to dip their noses in the trough while wrapping themselves in the cloak of nationalistic sportsmanship.

Of course the athletes get nothing.

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"You are like the wind and I like the lion. You form the tempest. The sand stings my eyes and the ground is parched. I roar in defiance but you do not hear. But between us there is a difference. I, like the lion, must remain in my place. While you like the wind will never know yours." -- Mulay Hamid El Raisuli, Lord of the Riff, Sultan to the Berbers, Last of the Barbary Pirates

It's a scam. But everyone is a willing participant. Everyone is getting something in return obviously... or nobody would turn up. I am cynical about the billions of dollars they are funneling into sports. Seems like more jobs for the boys and an open door for corruption.

Really the Olympic movement should be a public company... with public accountability. Only problem is... they are virtually a monopoly... even though they will argue that they are in a hostile, dynamic and competitive environment.

What they could have done is paid the professionals once they lifted the restriction on professionalism. But they didn't need to. Although some of the sports suffer because the professionals turn up more for the two week party in the village than they do for their sport.

The other thing is that most of the Olympic sports... apart from a few that have been added in the last 30 years... are not rich sports. Most of the athletes are not used to being paid a lot... and the ones that are (ie the medal winners) can often make much more out of endorsements if they win... than any prize money. It's a bit like professional cycling.... most of the remuneration comes from other sources (mostly the teams they are employed by)... not prize money.

I also hate fat cat sports administrators who make more out of the sport than the athletes. I told you the story of Hong Kong sending 17 athletes to the Asia Games in the early nineties.... and 55 officials. The athletes were treated like scum. Had to ride in the back of the bus. Weren't even looked at by most of the officials. 80% of the officials weren't even ex-sportsmen.

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WTF kind of thread is this? Haven't you progessives "accomplished" enough. You have ruined Christmas, we Americans can no longer say "One Nation, Under God", you have convinced people that Global Warming is man made, and now you want to mess with the Olympics!!

You are not moving forward; you are moving backward.

Please leave the Olympics alone, instead of trying to make it better. Some of us like it the way it is. (But there is one thing you can push for: Add Golf to the games)

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Lance Armstrong’s Last Words, August 10, 2007 - “We're proud of our record. We won eight Tours, a Vuelta, a Giro and other races and not one positive test," Armstrong said. “I’m not sure if there are many other teams who can say that right now. Couple that with our ethical record, despite all the gossip and nonsense that goes on.”

Idealogues are funny.

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"You are like the wind and I like the lion. You form the tempest. The sand stings my eyes and the ground is parched. I roar in defiance but you do not hear. But between us there is a difference. I, like the lion, must remain in my place. While you like the wind will never know yours." -- Mulay Hamid El Raisuli, Lord of the Riff, Sultan to the Berbers, Last of the Barbary Pirates

Interesting observations.

The staging of the Games for countries brings with it a sense of prestige.
At what price is that prestige?
Take Montreal for example : back in the good old days in 1976, corporate sponsorship of the Games was unheard of.
Montreal, financed it's staging of the Games, entirely out of Canadian taxpayers money.
The debt that Montreal incurred wasn't due to be cleared until late 1990's.

The IOC make great play about the infrastructural benefit to a location for staging the Games.
The IOC talks about the future benefits to a location of that infrastructural investment.
I was in Munich recently and I went to visit the Olympic stadium for the 1972
Games.
Munich had state of art athletic stadium, swimming hall etc.
To visit the site today, practically the entire site appears not be used.
The only part of the site that appeared to be in use when I was there was the swimming hall and the museum for the site.
At least Rome's Olympic stadium and Berlins Olympic stadiums are used by the
Italian/German football clubs.
Three years ago I was in barcelona, and it too appeared to be under utilised.
The entire Montjuich facility appeared to be, at best, a tourist spot.

So i do have my doubts as to the IOCs mantra about long term benefits.

(BTW - for the last couple of years, I've tried to visit as many Olympic stadia
as possible during my travels).

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.."But finally the last thing I’ll say to the people who don’t believe in cycling, the cynics and the sceptics. I'm sorry for you. I’m sorry that you can’t dream big. [I]I'm sorry you don't believe in miracles. You should believe in these athletes, and you should believe in these people. I'll be a fan of the Tour de France for as long as I live. And there are no secrets - this is a hard sporting event and hard work wins it" - Armstrong 2005 TDF
morelike hypocrisy.

Which all makes you realise why the UCI were so anxious for the ProTour to be a success!! Much like the F1 circuit, or the Barclays Premiership, there's a lot of money to be made from getting people to buy TV rights for things where you get other people to do all the actual work and investment for you. Witness Bernie Ecclestone blackmailing Silverstone into spending a fortune bringing their track up to standard, then handing over the F1 franchise to Donnington Park.

Of course, in F1 and football they still have to share some of the money with the participants - if only they'd thought of the whole Olympic pride stuff, they could have saved a fortune!

If the Olympics is the biggest scam... The Ryder Cup (golf between the US and Europe) is up there as one of the biggest scams as well. Huge TV rights. Zero player payments.

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The stadium in Munich was used by the football club for many decades. Only recently they built a new one (without the tracks IIRC).

Can you access the official website?? Or is it just me...

Was it?
Thanks for that.
I'd asssumed that Bayern Munich would have used the stadium.

(I was over in Munich in late 2006/early 2007: and the stadium look unoccupied : which is a pity because it's a fine stadium)

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.."But finally the last thing I’ll say to the people who don’t believe in cycling, the cynics and the sceptics. I'm sorry for you. I’m sorry that you can’t dream big. [I]I'm sorry you don't believe in miracles. You should believe in these athletes, and you should believe in these people. I'll be a fan of the Tour de France for as long as I live. And there are no secrets - this is a hard sporting event and hard work wins it" - Armstrong 2005 TDF
morelike hypocrisy.

I can.

The blue background for text sections was not a good design decision.

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"You are like the wind and I like the lion. You form the tempest. The sand stings my eyes and the ground is parched. I roar in defiance but you do not hear. But between us there is a difference. I, like the lion, must remain in my place. While you like the wind will never know yours." -- Mulay Hamid El Raisuli, Lord of the Riff, Sultan to the Berbers, Last of the Barbary Pirates

Hey! Not all of us here are Godless far-left liberals!

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"You miss 100% of the shots you don't take." -- Wayne Gretzsky

yeah some of us as Godless somewhat-centrist liberals !