Winter Olympics Sports Socialism Goes Out of Fashion in the Free World

The days when countries vied with each other for the national
(dis)honor of spending themselves into the poorhouse in order to host the Olympics — or at least the
Winter Olympics — might be fast disappearing. Why any sane city
would ever want to
host the Olympics is a mystery given that these games
never paid for themselves — although they did give politicians
lots of opportunities for waste, fraud and abuse. (Actually,
scratch that, the answer is clear: Most cities are not sane.) But
after Russia’s recent Sochi debacle bumped the price tag of this
sports socialism to a jaw-dropping $51 billion, the outer bounds of
insanity might have been reached. It is no longer possible to
pretend that the promises
of spillover effects and Keynesian multipliers are anything other
than total nonsense.

The deadline for awarding the 2022 Winter Olympics is barely a
year away and potential bidders are dropping out like Indian
athletes in a luge contest.

Reports Deadspin:

Yesterday, Krakow, Poland, officially withdrew its bid for the
games, a day after a citywide referendum where 70 percent of
voters came out against hosting the Olympics. “Krakow is closing
its efforts to be the host of the 2022 Winter Games due to the low
support for the idea among the residents,” said mayor Jacek
Majchrowski.

In January, another of the six original finalists pulled out,
when Stockholm, Sweden’s ruling political party declined to fund
the games. They cited the pointlessness of paying hundreds of
millions for facilities that would be used for two weeks and then
rarely again, a story common to almost all
Olympic hosts. “Arranging a Winter Olympics would mean a big
investment in new sports facilities, for example for the bobsleigh
and luge,”
the Moderate party said in a statement. “There isn’t any need
for that type of that kind of facility after an Olympics.”

In November, voters in Munich, Germany,
rejected a proposed Olympic bid. “The vote is not a signal
against the sport,” said one lawmaker, “but against the
non-transparency and the greed for profit of the IOC.”

Last March, a joint bid from Davos/St. Moritz, Switzerland, fell
apart after
being rejected by a public referendum.

Of the four remaining finalists, two are in rough shape. The
Oslo, Norway, bid is falling apart. It was supported by a
razor-thin margin in a September referendum, but public opposition
has only grown since then. And on Sunday, the junior member of the
government coalition
voted against funding any Olympics. For them to go on, it would
require an unprecedented alliance between the ruling Conservatives
and the opposition Labour party.

The Lviv, Ukraine, bid seems dead in the water with the turmoil
and war in the country. “Currently our dream is on hold,” said the
bid’s chief.

Who’s still standing? Almaty, Kazakhstan, and Beijing, China.
The first is an oppressive oil state and the second just an
oppressive state.

It has taken nearly a century for these white elephants to go
out of fashion in the free world. Can the unfree world be far behind? (The answer is “yes.” And
for proof, observe the 1980s mushroom cut that North Korean
strongman Kim Jong-un still apparently regards as high
fashion.)

My piece about the obscenity of poor countries like India
hosting the Commomwealth Games is 
here.

H/T: Prateik