Mega-Olympics model over, expert says
Rio 2016 Olympics opening ceremony at Maracanã stadium
The Rio 2016 Games may be the last Olympic mega-event to be held at soaring costs. The trend for the next Olympics is using leaner, more sustainable and affordable structures. This is the opinion of Lamartine Pereira da Costa, a sport researcher at the State University of Rio de Janeiro (UERJ) who is a member of the advisory board to the Russian International Olympic University.
“As part of the Agenda 2020 approved by the International Olympic Committee in 2014, it has been decided these things will no longer be acceptable. These are the world's last mega-event for the Games. There will be no more of this,” the professor said at during a talk on The Future of the Games at Brazil's hospitality house at Rio 2016 (Casa Brasil).
According to Costa, mega-scale sporting events are no longer sustainable from a financial perspective, because they require huge investments with lower returns. “It is a matter of sustainability. When you do something of that magnitude, it makes no economic, social, and cultural sense any more.”
Velodrome cost $62 million
Imbalances
The researcher instanced the past three Olympic Games in London (2012), Beijing (2008), and Athens (2004), which caused financial imbalances, and sports arenas were left unused. “Athens, London, and Beijing were huge. This [model] is exhausted. It's gone too far. It will no longer be accepted under the Agenda 2020.”
He mentioned the case of the velodrome. “It's no use for either Rio de Janeiro or Brazil. It cost $62 million. It is a huge loss,” he said.
Costa suggested that future Olympic games could be co-hosted by more than one city. “The tradition that's come all the way since Coubertin is over. Things will no longer be concentrated [in one place]. There could be more than one country,” the researcher said.
Translated by Mayra Borges
Fonte: Mega-Olympics model over, expert says
