Holloway (2006, p.261) suggests that Olympic Games tickets are in such high demand as the Olympics attracts sports enthusiast from around the world. This alone suggests that Olympic Games are a sure success for any hosting nation doesn’t it? That’s not so the case as Athens hosted the Olympic Game’s in 2004, but they experienced some disappointing turnouts (believed to be cause by the high hotel price increases during the games) and is unlikely to break even, due to the huge investment in infrastructure to support the games. HOLLOWAY, J,C. (2006 p.261).
Isla Binnie (2005) reports that the 2004 Athens Olympic Game’s “was a financial and logistical disaster”. Duncan Mackay reports in the Guardian that the Greek government admits the budget for the games of £3.1 billion has been considerably exceeded. However it is expect to be 15% more than originally planned. Nevertheless the cost is reported to of exploded to a staggering £6 billion, but some reports in spite of this estimates it could actually be as much as £10 billion, £5 billion of which the state is liable MATHESON, V.A,. & BAADE, R.A, (2003). Greece is the smallest country to ever host the Olympic Games; MACKAY, D. (2004) this alone would have created a problem as the economic state of Greece does not have a strong GDP. However Montreal had the same financial loss when they hosted the 1976 Olympic Games; Montreal lost over £2 billion and three decade on are still paying off their debts HOLLOWAY, J.C., (2006)
Panos Totsikas, coordinator of Campaign Anti-2004, notes that the public purse is the hardest hit: “The money comes from public funds, and because there's been extensive borrowing by the state the future generations could suffer”. This is a usual instance in other Olympic cities too but with Greece being small country, and additional security costs, the debt here is particularly high”. RED PEPPER (2005). Athens launched its biggest ever clean-up to get the capital into shape. Security measures were increased dramatically to include more than 50,000 police and soldiers, more than 1,400 security cameras. Police were brought in from other countries to help the security at Athens this was due to the 9/11 tourist attacks. Granted the games in 1997, Athens did not begin to design facility improvements until 2000. This caused major development problems later on as the constructions were not running to date every thing was behind schedule, staff when on strike and things kept going from bad to worse. Aristotle is said to of quoted "If things do not turn out as we wish, we should wish for them as they turn out". MINTEL (2004)
The situation in Athens is now one where almost all of the 36 purpose-built Olympic venues now lie empty. The Peace and Friendship stadium has reported leaks and electrical faults, the Olympic complex is closed to the public, and the marathon route and new tramway have caused major drainage problems. The Galatsi arena floor is covered in broken glass ad is unused. As costs mount, even the Greek government admits to a lack of planning. Fani Petralia, the deputy Culture Minister quotes “We did not have a reliable post-Olympics plan in Greece. Many venues were designed without their post-Olympic use in mind".
The 2000 UEFA European Championship, or Euro 2000, was the 11th UEFA European Championship, which is held every four years and organised by UEFA, football's governing body in Europe. WIKIPEDIA (2000). Euro 2000 was co-hosted (the first time this happened) by Belgium and the Netherlands between 10th June 2000 and 2nd July 2000. Euro football tournaments are widely regarded as the third largest sporting event in the world MINTEL (2004). Euro 2000 attracted approximately 1.2 million spectators, the event was also expected to accumalate a tevevison audience of 7 billion viewers.
Holand was no stranger to hosting important sporting events, they had already hosted 4 Champions League or Europeam Champions cup finals and 7 European cup winners cup finals between 1962 to 1997. The Dutch capital Amsterdam also hosted the Olympic Games in 1928. Although sporting events were a regular occurance within the country the Euro 2000 was an event in a different class. MINTEL (2004)
Hosting the European Championships (EURO) football tournament is understandably seen as an economic boom. For example, the Netherlands and Belgium, co-hosts to the Euro 2000 competition, the countries must have done well out of it, even though neither team won, and both countries had to cope with visiting hooligans? ANON (2000).
Statistics however purports, that the best way to turn the Euro 2000 tournament into economic growth is to win. Anon (2000) reports that when The Netherlands won in 1988, the Dutch economy was growing by about 1.7% a year. In the next three years, it grew by 3.0% a year. Winners of other tournaments since 1984 have enjoyed similar booms. Anon (2000) suggests that “the most likely explanation is psychological: victory boosts consumer confidence, and hence demands”.
Football-hungry foreigners staying in hotels and eating in restaurants might simply crowd out domestic custom. Hooliganism may frighten away locals forcing them to leave their residents and vacate to another area or even take a holiday to a different country. This can cause hostility between locals as they feel that businesses just want the extra custom from the visiting fans and feel neglected and over ruled by them ANON (2000).
Mega sporting events such as Euro 2000 warrant the construction of new stadiums between 8 – 10 stadiums are required to host this event, a sure increase in tourism, and higher tax revenues-all of which might be expected to spur growth. On balance, the economic increase may not amount to much. More so Euro 2000 has accommodated only a small incentive to the Dutch economy. Meerwaarde, a Dutch research organisation, estimated in January that the increase in spending would be 200m guilders, a 0.2% of Dutch GDP ANON (2000).
But if they really want to bolster their economies, they should not be trying to play host: they should be seeking to win ANON (2000). Mintel (2004) report on Euro 2000 did not have comprehensive information regarding the cost of the tournament to the governments of the host nations, as there was no available statistics at time of publication. However Belgium was estimated that by hosting Euro 2000 would cost the Euro 2000 Foundation £37.8 million, this was spent on leasing the stadiums, staffing matches, security, ticket production, promotion etc. Income from the event was estimated to be £21.8m from ticket sales, £5.7m from broadcasting rights, £9.2m from sales of merchandise and advertising. The Euro 2000 federation itself is expected to make a profit of just £31.800 in financial terms Euro 2000 was a success. MINTEL (2004)
To conclude looking at the evidence given and the reading undertook, some mega sporting events are a success and have proved profitable to the host country. Such as Barcelona and Belgium and Holland, but for these countries they already had good infrastructure and stadiums in place. They did not have to build and construct from scratch. Maybe that’s the winning way to have structures in place which can be used to host the events without having to build a complete new city. Athens on the other hand started nearly from scratch and has not maintained any of the major building or infrastructure, so they can not use the facilities to generate income for the country. Athens have wasted billions of tax payers and investors monies bring the Olympics to Athens but did not revel and improve on the impacts the competition could of had, with its advertisements and television viewing, this could of generated tourism potential. Belgium and Holland already hosted individual football games so they had the stadium and knowledge of what was expected and needed. As they had hosted these kinds of events since 1962 the infrastructure had slowly been built over the years to accommodate the amount of visitor fans. So it can be argued by various reports and journals and texts that mega sporting events could be counterproductive for host destinations. As you will see from the essay evidence is shown for and against mega sporting events being counterproductive. Holloway (2006, p.261) could be said to argue against the question that mega sporting events can be counterproductive as he suggests that the economic benefit of these events to the destinations where they are hosted can be enormous". Isla Binnie (2005) reported in the Observer newspaper that the 1992 Barcelona games was the ultimate Olympic success, and has sustained a rise in tourism.
Bibliography
Anon. (2000) Winning is Everything. The Economist, vol.356, ( iss. 8178), pp.78-80.
Cooper, C, Fletcher, J, Fyall, A, Gilbert, D, and Wanhill, S. (2005) Tourism Principles and Practice. 3rd ed., Essex: Pearson Education Ltd
Holloway, J.C., (2006) The Business of Tourism 7th Ed Essex: Pearson Education Limited
Mackay, D., The Guardian newspaper, Sport, (2004) One Hundred things you never knew about Athens 2004 [online]. 05th May 2004, [cited 01st August 2007]. < http://sport.guardian.co.uk/athens2004/story/0,,1209570,00.html >
Mason, P., (2003) Tourism Impacts, Planning and Management Oxford: Elsevier Butterworth-Heinemann
Matheson, V.A., and Baade, R.A., Willaims Edu (March 2003) Mega sporting events in developing countries – Playing the way to prosperity [online]. No date, [cited 08th July 2007] <>
Mathieson, A, and Wall, G,. (1992) Tourism economic, physical and social impacts Essex: Longman Group Ltd
Mintel (2004) sports tourism – international. Travel and Tourism Analyst, Travel Journals: International, Travel and Tourism: International.
Reyes, O., Red Pepper, Raising the political temperature-culture (2005) The Olympics and the City [online]. April 2005, [cited 01st August 2007].
<http://www.redpepper.org.uk/arts/x-apr2005-reyes.htm>
Sport & Tourism (2001) 1st world conference, Barcelona, Spain. Sport & Tourism.
Wikipedia the free encyclopedia (06th August 2007) UEFA Euro 2000 [online]. No date, [cited 06th August 2007] <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2000_UEFA_European_Football_Championship>
Youell, R. (1998) Tourism an Introduction, 1st ed., Essex: Addison Wesley Longman Limited
