The list of cities and countries that have hosted the World Cup and Olympics, and done horrible things to do so is growing. 1968 Mexico City: hundreds of students massacred. 1972 Munich was deliberately lax in security, opening the door for Fatah terrorists, who killed eleven Israeli athletes. 1976 Montreal: the Olympic Stadium took 30 years to pay off, at a cost of C$1.5 billion. 1980 Moscow and Lake Placid seemed to work ok, as did Sarajevo 1984, but the growing debt of Montreal, scared off every city in the world but Los Angeles from bidding for the 1984 Summer Games. These only came off because Peter Uberroth guaranteed private financing, a huge television audience, and because just about every major US American university has the infrastructure to host the Olympics.
2012 London: just to start, East End "regeneration" numbers.
Shall we continue? 1988 Seoul: the military government repressed student protests in the lead up to the games, quelled labor unrest, and suspended discussions over constitutional reform until after the Olympics. 1992 Barcelona: massive reformation of the city center without democratic process, gentrification and dislocation, and the making of an international tourist city, forever altering the social and spatial character of the city. 1996 Atlanta: demolition of low income neighborhoods, the sweeping of the homeless under the podium, and rampant real-estate speculation, hper-commercialization of public space, and the total absence of an urban legacy.
Want more? 2000 Athens: massive dislocation of Roma people, astronomical budgetary overruns (which are today part of a more generalized crisis for the EU), and nearly all of the stadia built for the event go unused.
2002 Korea / Japan: 20 new stadiums...TWENTY! These were constructed in the midst of the East Asian financial crisis and the cities are struggling to keep them standing, much less occupied with teams and fans.
2006 Germany: 1.4 billion euros on stadiums. Not much for a country with great transportation infrastructure and a huge soccer culture. Yet, the idea that a World Cup will bring more tourists was debunked as Munich saw an overall drop in tourism in 2006
2008 Beijing: the Bird's Nest is turning into a shopping mall. Enough said.
2010 Vancouver: Gentrification, appropriation of native lands, hyper-security, dislocation of low-income residents, criminalization of the poor, huge costs. This video is good.
2012 London: just to start, East End "regeneration" numbers.
2014 Brazil World Cup: 12 new stadiums, no national rail or highway infrastructure, big problems with the airports. Keep coming back here for updates, but also check out this site for daily news.
2016 Rio de Janeiro: R$ 30 billion guaranteed by the government. 2007 Pan American Games 10x over budget with the same people in charge. Violence, poverty, wealth, tranquilidade, cut-throat politics, corruption and a hell of a place to be.
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