Whenever you host an event as large as the Olympic Games,
there are bound to be far reaching and unexpected impacts on the host country.
Before the games began, there were worries about ticketing, public transport,
and respect to indigenous people. Luckily none of these turned out to be
problems, and reports said that public transport actually ran better than
normal during the games. The biggest unexpected winner of these games seems to
be the volunteers. 47,000
volunteers from Sydney showed up to help logging thousands of hours, and by all
accounts they were the picture of a friendly Australian welcoming people to
their country, and being generally helpful. When we visited the Olympic Park
today, one of the first things the guide mentioned was how crucial and
indispensable the volunteers were, and pointed us to the monument in their
honor. In addition to their names being commemorated in the Park, they were
thrown a ticker tape parade that over 100,000 people attended. So I would say
that one big impact of these games would be the positive views of volunteers
and volunteering as an activity.
Each Olympic Games are a little different, but there is no
denying that they have an impact on the economy, whether it is positive of
negative is a whole other story.. Although these games might not have made a
ton of money, they cost 6.5 billion dollars, which is a long way off from the
40 plus billion Beijing spent on theirs. Regardless of the cost vs. revenue of
the games themselves, Sydney did something that no one else has managed to
replicate so far. What they did was turn the Olympic Park into a sporting venue
and destination in the twelve years since. We were lucky enough to get a
presentation from a main manager of the Park, in charge of growing events and
interest in the Park itself. To see how they have grown in the years after the
games, lets look at some stats: (a little dated, all numbers are actually
bigger now..)
- · 1.6 million spectators annually.
- · 1.7 million participants annually.
- · 55 sports headquarters located in the Park.
- · 5,000 events per year.
- · 10 Million visitors a year.
As you can see they haven’t thrown locks on the venues and
the Park and let it go to ruin, they have grown it substantially. Going off of
the amount of visitors, another thing this does is boost tourism. Besides
tourism people come just for enjoyment, they host events for kids to play
sports, have areas people can swim in the Aquatic Center where all the
Olympians swam. Finally, they can host concerts and events, they are preparing
for a huge festival right now called “the Big Day Out” which is headlined by
the Red Hot Chili Peppers. In 2010 they set the Australian attendance record
for a concert series with 213,045 people who showed up for AC/DC.
They are making this space work for them.
I think one of the biggest things that came from these games
was pride. The Olympic Chairman called it “The Best Games Ever!” and its widely
held to be one of the smoothest, sustainable, and successful games ever. You
can bet that Australians are proud of this. They have a country of just around
22 million people, something that most people forget. Even with this, they put
a lot of pride in their sports, and finished 4th in medals in
Sydney, and routinely finish top 10 in every game. They view anything higher
than that as a disappointment. Not bad for a country with about the same amount
of people as New York state. Considering you never know how these Games will
turn out, they could be great or they could be a huge disappointment (see
Atlanta, 1996). Given all the positives that have come out of this I would say
it is absolutely worth it to host one of these mega events to innovate, and
grow some pride in the process. There really is no exact formula for a successful mega event like this, or the world cup, and it really does vary for if they will be profitable or worth it. I think almost everyone will agree that these games were worth it.
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