Hosting Olympics is a cost or an investment?

Hosting Olympics is a cost or an investment?

What’s your thought? I was speaking to the Lyft (Uber’s competitor) driver who’s already over 50 years old in Los Angeles just yesterday. Yes, I am now in Los Angeles. He was one ardent fan of the Olympics and he told me how he was looking forward to the Olympics which will be held in Los Angeles in 2024. He shared how he wanted to be a volunteer and hopes that it will be the biggest Olympics ever because it is now happening in the US. I wished him all the best but coming back to the financial part.

Is Olympics considered a cost or an investment?

Source of info: visualcapitalist.com

Why is it a cost to the host country?

It is a cost to the host country because the country has to come up with the funds to host the Olympics. They would have to find the sponsors, build new or ensure existing facilities are world-class and even get as many volunteers s they could because it is not possible to hire full timers or even part-timers for such a mammoth scale event.

Assuming they get all the volunteers, they would still need to ensure these volunteers get the equipments to do their job well, they get allowances for food, transport, accommodation and more. All these are costs, costs and costs. Returns? Erm… you mean from the ticket sales? For some of the popular sports maybe? Haha. Sorry, no countries have reported the far that they managed to host the Olympics with just the contribution from ticket sales. Okay, it’s not all bad and gloomy lah.

Why is it an investment to the host country?

There are a lot of benefits too. When hundreds of thousands people travel to the host country, they do not just watch the games and then leave. They may arrive earlier, travel around and then watch the games and then depart later. They would spend their money on food, local accommodation and even pay for some entertainments. These tourists will likely come back in the future, they will tell their friends and family about the host country and more people will visit.

Host country will gain the attention of the world and technically, that’s free since every reporting about the Olympics will mention the country. Every video captured would be showing the country. Every journalist who covers the events will likely to be very familiar with the country and definitely would be writing about them. Do you know how much advertisement fee one country has to pay to have most of the countries in the world to report about the event, the people and the stories if this is not Olympics but it’s a private entity? Yes, IMPOSSIBLE to afford. This is why it is still an investment.

Malaysia as a host?

I think Malaysia has a long way to go. Let’s not host the games just for the hosting yeah. Let’s also host the game because we want to see our country win more medals, especially the elusive gold medal. We have to start to look at those sports we have chances to win and stay very focused. Some countries around the region has been focusing on fencing… and some countries have focused their efforts on swimming.

Well, we have been a cycling powerhouse in Asia, it’s time to build on it and stop having just participants in keirinlah. We used to be a big player for diving, this has since disappeared. It’s just not possible to rely on the few traditional sports anymore. All the best!

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