Beyond a Joke

[artme]

For some years I have been concerned about two organizations that seem to be answerable to nobody.

FIFA and the IOC.

Again allegations of bribery have emerged concerning FIFA. Australia spent $43million dollars in its bid to get
the world cup and ended up with one vote!

Brazil is a mess in terms of the world cup. Many of the problems there can only be laid at the feet of the country itself but, if the Brazilian press is to be believed, FIFA has something to answer for. Hospitals have been closed to locals at the behest of FIFA so foreigners and players can be treated. I have read of one case of an extremely ill person being refused admittance to his hospital.Millions upon millions of dollars have been diverted from public facilities such as schools and hospitals to meet FIFA's exacting demands.

For the Olympic games the same thing is happening. It goes further because people are being moved from their houses and the houses pulled down. This is causing all sorts of extra problems both socially and financially.


I am sick of these de facto "governments" swanning around the planet and distrubuting largess as they see fit to the highest bidder.

i wonder if the Olympics in Sydney in 2000 were really worth the money? Were they profitable or a financial disaster that has been hidden?

[rrich]

I think that the second Los Angeles Olympic games were very profitable. The excess proceeds were put into a foundation that supported youth sports. I think that they have finally exhausted those funds.

SWMBO, myself and the two boys attended an event every day of the games. The events that we attended were all of the soccer (football) matches in the Rose Bowl. As I recall, all of the tickets were less than $400 and considered a bargain. A few years later we hosted the World Cup. IIRC, tickets for all events at the Rose Bowl or Coliseum (Which I can't remember) were just a bit less than $1200 EACH.

Now you're thinking that these Yanks must be great at building and organizing. Not even close. The reason that we were able to make money was that all the facilities existed and nothing had to be constructed. Almost everything was built for the previous LA Olympics and have been used since then. There were some 'Off sites' that used other existing municipality facilities.

There have been suggestions to the IOC on several occasions that, given four or five months, LA could host the Olympic games on short notice.

At that time there was a national speed limit of 55 miles per hour. People every were predicting grid lock over the entire LA area. I remember being asked by a relative 2500 miles distant about the horrible traffic. I told her that traffic was so bad that at times we had to actually slow down to 65 miles per hour. (When traffic is light in the LA metro area, traffic seems to flow at 75 or 80. Even back in the days of the national limit of 55.)