Forewarned is forearmed?
Let this be a lesson to you Vancouver
One of the smallest nations ever to host the globe’s biggest sports event, Greece had hoped the Olympics would transform its citizens’ lives as never before. Instead, they are discovering that the 16-day bonanza may have been pure folly. This week, as their government prepares to release a long-awaited bill stipulating the venues’ ‘post-Olympic usage’, many are wondering whether staging the Games was little more than an exercise in economic flagellation.
The biggest Olympics ever, and the most expensive in terms of security, the event is believed to have cost about £7 billion, five times more than originally expected. Such a bill, say economists, will take at least two decades to pay off with Greeks as yet unborn footing most of it.
‘The hefty post-Olympics bill is already being compounded by the devaluation of the sports venues,’ opined the authoritative daily Kathimerini, summing up the mood. ‘And all the while, the collective memory of the euphoria of the Games continues to fade.’
Comment from pericat
Time: 3/6/2005, 11:44 pm
Oh, it’s way too late for that.
It is not, however, too late to move to YT.