4 ms·

There is a joke in my country (Poland) about every little town needing: -an airport -an aquapark -a huge sport stadion All of them as a way to transfer some

There is a joke in my country (Poland) about every little town needing: -an airport -an aquapark -a huge sport stadion All of them as a way to transfer some state/town money to political cronies. The sad part is that some of those make sense as an infrastructure improvement (most doesn't though, at least here) so it's easier to sell the idea to people. The way the business is done is to just pay 30%-50% more than it should cost and pocket the difference.

raverbashing 11y ago
That's for the Amateurs, Professionals do a whole World Cup
- ubernostrum 11y ago
  And to get into the hall of fame, you do an Olympics.
  - dugmartin 11y ago
    And to add a gold seal to your hall of fame certificate do an Olympics in Massachusetts.
  - woobar 11y ago
    Brazil and Russia are going to outdo this. By hosting both World Cup and Olympics within a few years.
    - raverbashing 11y ago
      Russia also had the Winter Olympics (and Snow when it's 10C outside is expensive)
  - hkmurakami 11y ago
    Look no further than the $2.5 billion debacle that is the new Tokyo Olympic stadium. A rather lavish expenditure for a country that is deep in debt.
    - digi_owl 11y ago
      A nation is never too deep in debt to host a sports event (or take part in a war)...
    - _delirium 11y ago
      Another example among many: Greece hosting the 2004 Olympics turned out not to be a great financial decision.
    - shimo5037 11y ago
      They scrapped the plans. http://uk.reuters.com/article/2015/07/17/olympics-japan-stadium-idUKL4N0ZX2EN20150717 http://uk.reuters.com/article/2015/07/17/olympics-japan-stad...
- bluecalm 11y ago
  We went for smaller stakes by doing Euro 2012. I live in one of the hosting cities and it's easy to tell a lot of construction work was half-arsed and never finished (mainly roads). There is also not enough traffic to make the big stadium close to profitable but hey, that's another opportunity for the town to transfer some money to local football club (a lot of our politicians are connected to football structures). It would be funny if it wasn't sad. No wonder people avoid paying taxes when they see the money being wasted all around and citizens not ever asked about new crazy idea to build with it. We already have an expensive aquapark, huge stadium and two airports though. I wonder what's next for a town with a population of 600k in one of the poorest EU countries.
- yitchelle 11y ago
  Interestingly, it seems that big sporting events that seems to make any money are those where you don't have to be "voted" to host the event. Think Wimbledon, Marathons, FA Cup finals etc. Sporting events like the F1 Grand Prix, FIFA world cups and Olympics etc seems to be full of loss making money stories for the hosts, but its organisation company seems to do quite well out of it. This is just a casual observation, and I could be totally wrong.
deleted 11y ago
[deleted]
odabaxok 11y ago
Ohh.. take a look at the home town of the Hungarian prime minister: https://goo.gl/maps/JXK9w https://goo.gl/maps/JXK9w The town has a population about 1700, the stadium on the map has capacity for 4500.

raverbashing 11y ago

That's for the Amateurs, Professionals do a whole World Cup

ubernostrum 11y ago
And to get into the hall of fame, you do an Olympics.
- dugmartin 11y ago
  And to add a gold seal to your hall of fame certificate do an Olympics in Massachusetts.
- woobar 11y ago
  Brazil and Russia are going to outdo this. By hosting both World Cup and Olympics within a few years.
  - raverbashing 11y ago
    Russia also had the Winter Olympics (and Snow when it's 10C outside is expensive)
- hkmurakami 11y ago
  Look no further than the $2.5 billion debacle that is the new Tokyo Olympic stadium. A rather lavish expenditure for a country that is deep in debt.
  - digi_owl 11y ago
    A nation is never too deep in debt to host a sports event (or take part in a war)...
  - _delirium 11y ago
    Another example among many: Greece hosting the 2004 Olympics turned out not to be a great financial decision.
  - shimo5037 11y ago
    They scrapped the plans. http://uk.reuters.com/article/2015/07/17/olympics-japan-stadium-idUKL4N0ZX2EN20150717 http://uk.reuters.com/article/2015/07/17/olympics-japan-stad...
bluecalm 11y ago
We went for smaller stakes by doing Euro 2012. I live in one of the hosting cities and it's easy to tell a lot of construction work was half-arsed and never finished (mainly roads). There is also not enough traffic to make the big stadium close to profitable but hey, that's another opportunity for the town to transfer some money to local football club (a lot of our politicians are connected to football structures). It would be funny if it wasn't sad. No wonder people avoid paying taxes when they see the money being wasted all around and citizens not ever asked about new crazy idea to build with it. We already have an expensive aquapark, huge stadium and two airports though. I wonder what's next for a town with a population of 600k in one of the poorest EU countries.
yitchelle 11y ago
Interestingly, it seems that big sporting events that seems to make any money are those where you don't have to be "voted" to host the event. Think Wimbledon, Marathons, FA Cup finals etc. Sporting events like the F1 Grand Prix, FIFA world cups and Olympics etc seems to be full of loss making money stories for the hosts, but its organisation company seems to do quite well out of it. This is just a casual observation, and I could be totally wrong.

deleted 11y ago

[deleted]

odabaxok 11y ago

Ohh.. take a look at the home town of the Hungarian prime minister: https://goo.gl/maps/JXK9w https://goo.gl/maps/JXK9w The town has a population about 1700, the stadium on the map has capacity for 4500.