Abstract

As the Summer Olympic Games staged in Rio de Janeiro come to a close, the estimated $50 billion-plus spent on sporting venues has become the source of growing criticism by city residents who maintain that their needs were sacrificed for the political prestige that comes from hosting the Games. Unfortunately, this same scenario has played out in other host cities, but the problem is especially pronounced in developing countries that lack the infrastructure and financial resources required to contract massive sporting venues and support thousands of international athletes for just a 2-week period. In response, there have been increasing calls for the construction of permanent homes for the Summer and Winter Olympic Games. This essayreviews the relevant literature to provide a brief history of the Olympic Games and to analyze the arguments in support of establishing a permanent home for them, followed by a summary of the research and important findings about the Olympic Games in the conclusion.

Permanent Home For The Olympic Games

 

Introduction

On the one hand, the 2016 Summer Olympic Games held in Rio de Janeiro can be regarded as an enormous success, at least for the International Olympic Committee which reaps a multi-billion dollar fortune every 2 years. On the other hand, though, the politicized manner in which host cities are currently selected and the enormously onerous financial commitments that must be made to secure a winning bid have attracted criticism from all quarters, with many observers arguing in support of permanent homes for the Summer and Winter Olympic Games. To determine the viability and rationale in support of this move, this paper reviews the relevant literature to provide a brief history of the modern Olympic Games, followed by a description of the current strategy used by the International Olympic Committee to select host cities. Finally, an analysis of the arguments in support of establishing a permanent home for the Games is followed by a summary and synthesis of the research together with important findings concerning these issues in the conclusion.

A Brief History of the Modern Olympic Games

The Olympic Games were first staged in Olympia, Greece in 776 BCE and were intended primarily as a religious festival honoring Zeus (The real story of the Olympic Games, 2016). The ancient Greeks continued to stage the Olympic... Founded 2 years previously in 1894 by Pierre de Coubertin (Lubin & Delevigne, 2010), the purportedly non-profit International Olympic Committee (IOC) became the Games highest authority which coordinated the Athens Games and established the Olympics goal which is to contribute to building a peaceful and better world by educating youth through sport practiced without discrimination or any kind, in a spirit of friendship, solidarity and fair play. The overarching mission of the IOC is to "promote Olympism throughout the world and to lead the Olympic Movement." Notwithstanding the foregoing lofty goal and mission, the IOC has been increasingly criticized in recent years for its executives profligacy and money-fueled favoritism as discussed below.

The Role of the International Olympic Committee

Since their resurrection over a century ago, the Olympic Games been marred by national and international politics and the manner in which host cities are selected by the IOC (Johnson & Johnson, 2003). Indeed, in sharp contrast to the original version where there were no corporate sponsors and winning athletes received a laurel wreath only, the modern international Olympic Games have become a multi-billion dollar industry today (Johnson & Johnson, 2003). It became possible to generate even more revenues from the Olympics when they were divided into the Summer and Winter Games in 1908 alternating every 2 years and host cities have expended more than $50 billion for these 2-week events in recent years (Cole, 2014). In addition, far more countries participate in the modern Games than a century ago when just a couple of dozen nations fielded Olympic teams (Lubin & Delevigne, 2010)

The current strategy that is used by the IOC to select host cities for the Games is set forth in Rule 33 of the Olympic Charter which stipulates in part:

The IOC Executive Board determines the procedure to be followed until the election by the Session takes place. Save in exceptional circumstances, such election takes place seven years before the celebration of the Olympic Games; and,
The national government of the country of any candidate city must submit to the IOC a legally binding…