Chris Lara 2-25-14
One of the
most controversial topics of this month was the Winter Olympics. I find that
the winter Olympics, held in Sochi, Russia, was one of the most wasteful
investments of 2014. The cost it took to build, supply, and host the event was extremely high and put the whole country into debt.
The only
reason to host the Olympics is to gain a tourism boom, and that’s what Sochi
was planning for. Unfortunately, Sochi had the least percentage of people come
to watch the live sports in over 20 years. One of the main reasons is because this
under developed city in Russia has been through poverty, enrichment, and a neutral
time phase in the last few decades. With the unattractive nature and stereotypes
this city has, it’s no wonder an audience was not the only thing missing. Many
reports of destroyed property, unused facilities, and violent riots were
recorded during the two months prior to Sochi’s Olympics. I believe
that the stereotypes and miss interpretations of news coverage that hit Sochi
was the biggest reason people did not come to watch the event.
The amount
of money wasted on this project was 51 billion dollars. This is equivalent to
all of the winter Olympics ever held combined! And most of it is not going to
be coming back with the extremely low profit they made. A possible substitute
to this year’s Olympics was to use the money to help other countries in need.
Even with the initial 12 billion dollar limit, Russia could have used that
money to improve the poor living conditions of its own cities. The priority of
saving many lives by feeding, clothing, or helping other people in need greatly
surpasses the need for simple games of hitting a puck with a stick or riding
down a hill in a cart.
There are
almost an infinite amount of ideas that could have been substituted into the use
of the money that was spent, but the decision of hosting the 2014 Winter Olympics
in Sochi was by far one of the worst.
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