The Sochi Olympics is the most expensive Olympic Games
ever with a cost of around $50 billion. Despite the
enormous cost, only $6 billion was used solely for the Olympic sporting venues (3). The
original budget of the Sochi Games in 2007 was $12 billion (4). Naturally the cost would increase in seven years with
inflation, however the fact that it increased exponentially is the result of
poor planning!
Major Reasons for the Cost:
1. Infrastructure
and accommodations: Prior to the Olympic construction, the Sochi area consisted
of a series of small villages of only a couple thousand people. So it required
a tremendous amount of construction by around 20,000 migrant workers to build
the facilities and infrastructure to support an event of this size (2). Large scale infrastructure, including railways, highways,
airports, hotels, etc., were established to accommodate and connect such a
large mass of people. In fact, 1 million people were expected to attend
(including 13,000 journalists), as a result a large amount of money was used to construct hotel accommodations (1).
2. Sports Facilities:
If you expect to transform a beach holiday destination into a winter sports
hub, it’s going to cost a fortune. With only one ski-lift and none-existent ski
runs and sports complexes (i.e. arenas), the organizers built almost every
venue from scratch (1).
3. Weather:
A large amount of money was invested in a backup system to increase the supply of
snow in case there was an insufficient amount of snow due to the high temperatures
(I will elaborate more upon this in another post).
4. Security: Another
reason for the excessive budget is the investment in security measures to
address the terrorist threats (4). There were 100,000 police officers and soldiers
employed to ensure a safe environment during the Games (5).
In comparison, the 2010 Vancouver Olympics cost ~$8
billion. One railway and highway alone (between Sochi and the skiing site) was
of equivalent cost (or more) to the entire Vancouver Games. Also, the 2008
Summer Olympics in Beijing was previously the most expensive Olympics prior
to this year’s Games, with a budget of ~$43 billion. So Sochi even surpassed the
Beijing Olympics by around $7 billion which is insane! Also, the Winter
Olympics are traditionally cheaper than the Summer Olympics (4).
The reason for changing the location of the
Olympics each year is to give every country a chance to showcase their
facilities and their country. However, the organizers have started selecting underdeveloped
areas. These countries have not traditionally hosted the Olympics because they don’t
have the infrastructure and resources to support such a large mass of people.
Therefore developed cities like Vancouver who already have some of the
facilities, hotels, highways and other transportation systems, did not require
as high a cost. I agree that every country should have an opportunity to hold
the Olympics, but I also think that the price tag of the event should be taken
into consideration.
If Sochi is able to use the ski resort and sports
venues frequently following the Olympics, than I think it would partially compensate
for the outrageous cost. However, if Russia is unable to put the new hotels,
sports complexes and infrastructure to use, than Sochi will be left with angry
and displaced residents (those that had to move to make room for the
facilities), as well as extremely expensive, but underutilized facilities. Also
considering the security uncertainties in Russia with the unstable political
situation (especially in the last few weeks), I don’t think many people are
going to want to visit Sochi in the near future. Consequently, I think Russia
will be left with a crazy debt that will take years to pay off.
You're blogs are very well structured and you have many facts to prove your points.. Good job! Anyway, you're right Amanda, if Russia was better prepared for this event, it would've cost them a lot less and the whole event would've been a lot better and smoother. Especially with the politics issues. Keep it one hundred!
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