Economic Impact Of The Olympic Games Essay

919 Words4 Pages
A Critical Analysis of the
Socioeconomic Impact of The Olympic Games

Introduction:
The Olympic Games are one of the best examples of a global sporting mega-event. It is often stated that the hosting of the Olympic Games bring about many benefits to the host country, and some countries make huge efforts to bid for hosting the Olympic Games. However, in recent years, countries are not as willing to bid for the chance to host the Olympics, and this occurs as people continue to debate the exact impacts of the Olympic Games. So what exactly are the economic and social impacts of the Olympic Games? Should a country choose to host the Olympic Games if given the opportunity to do so? These are the main questions that this paper will discuss and answer.

Economic Impact:
In this paper, the economic impacts of the Olympic Games will be addressed by analyzing the impacts of the government spending, the explicit cost benefits during the event, and the long-term effects of hosting the Olympics.
Government spending and expenditure
The modern Olympic Games, especially in present times, have been extremely costly. The London 2012 Summer Olympics cost a total of $15 billion (Vaccaro, 2015), the Beijing 2008 Summer Olympics costed at least $40 billion (Riley, 2015), and the Sochi Winter Olympics totaled $55 billion, around four times the amount proposed at the time of bidding at $12.5 billion (Muller, 2014). Most of this money went into development of infrastructure, and building of sports