Saturday, October 03, 2009

Rio's won the Olympics! It won't help its economy.


Like he Sydney Olympics stuffed Sydney's economy (in contrast to the advance promises).

Can you think a single host city who's economy raced ahead after it hosted an Olympic Games?

To quote the findings of a recent comprehensive study:

"The net benefit of the Olympic Games is therefore substantially negative when the estimates of Olympic benefits from this paper are combined with published estimates for event costs."

Australia's Olympic Games were meant to bring an extra 1.5 million tourists in the months that followed. Instead tourism collapsed.

Now, what was the name of the consulting firm that produced the impressive-looking study arguing that the Olympic Games would boost Sydney's economy?

"An economic gold medal for Australia," said the then Minister John Fahey.

Oh yes, the consulting firm was KPMG.

The NSW Treasury predicted an even greater boost.

Let's see now, did NSW surge ahead or did it stumble after the Games?

Has it since recovered?