sixpacker: every olympics for years has cost the hosts billions, even counting all the indirect tourist impact. I presume you are talking about indirect tourist impact during the actual Games themselves, which has certainly been disputed. However, there is still the belief that by becoming a "world-class city", for lack of of a better term, that the tourism benefits far beyond the Games themselves are worth the investment. (This group, among others, disagrees...)
With a little thought, you could probably come up with a formula, or at least a set of criteria, for whether hosting the games makes sense. Something like: - What are the most expensive facilities that you need to supply? Note that this doesn't just include athletic venues, but also infrastructure such as roads and airports. - How many of these do you have already? Of the ones you don't have, how many could be created by expanding/adapting existing facilities, and how many would have to be built from scratch? - How much reuse value would you get from anything you had to build -- and how much of that use would benefit the local community directly, rather than some hypothetical group that would come in to use the facility (e.g., a general purpose athletic training facility that could be used by local teams, as opposed to a velodrome whose local appeal would be very limited)? Above all, I think that it's probably best to throw out the idea of an actual benefit in dollar terms. I hate all these vague, "Think of the money flowing in!" arguments -- they're pretty dishonest, if you ask me.
Yeah, this is quite egregious.
Chico, is that a new demonstration sport. And BTW, DrJohn, I ate an Atkins bagel today, toasted with CarbOptions Peanut Butter!
Tasty, yet morally ambiguous.
Chico, I have nothing to add except for the fact that that's the best picture I've ever seen anywhere.
Chico, is that a new demonstration sport Yes, it's called Mexican Farm Animal Stacking and the Antarcticans dominate the sport. Them penguins can stack the fuck out of some farm animals.
You guys are frigging hilarious. Mexican Farm Animal Stacking, indeed. I'm dying here.
Funny, their front page also states this hooey: "With such a high selling rate, the tickets of the ATHENS 2004 Olympic Games are already hard to find. Purchase yours in time and be part of the greatest celebration of humanity" Riiiiiiiiight. I'd call that good old wishful thinking.
Ay, chihuahua! Es Stacking de Farm Animal Mexicano!! Whoa!
What I like is that the Olympics is about friendly competition and human endeavour. Thankfully it isn't run by a bunch of money-hungry cock-whores.
Ha! grum said COCK!
Actually, it's only a sport for the goat. In the spirit of fairness, all countries use the same ass, so the ape and the cock are the only real variables from team to team. (And as always, go Antarctica!)
And I knew that picture would come in useful.
