Olympics Expert: Few Host Cities Come Out As Economic Winners
BOSTON (CBS) - Smith College Professor Andrew Zimbalist, a leading expert on Olympic economics and author of the new book "Circus Maximus" outlining the risks of hosting the games, says when it comes to the budget and promises of economic payoff, organizers are way off base.
"Very, very few cities in the history of the Olympics have come out as economic winners, and it's very unlikely that Boston would become a winner," Zimbalist says.
Take London, host of the last summer games, where Zimbalist says cost-overruns dwarfed the $25 million insurance policy that Local organizers have touted as protection.
"The London organizing committee took in $3.28 billion dollars from all of the Olympic revenues," Zimbalist says. "The acknowledged spending on the London Olympics was between 15 and 20 billion dollars."
"That's your financial balance. How does a $25 million insurance policy - million, not billion - secure your risks?"
The professor also says research shows tourism drops during the games.
"Tourism in London during the month of the Olympics went down by five percent, so there's no extra income that's coming in to the hotels and restaurants and so on," Zimbalist says.
Professor Zimbalist says the only summer Olympic Games in the modern era that didn't soak the taxpayers were Barcelona in 1992, where the games were folded into a preexisting urban renewal plan, and Los Angeles in 1984, where the International Olympic committee agreed to cover any cost overruns, a promise they are not making in Boston.
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