What happens to stadiums after the Olympics, or the World Cup?
It’s a challenging question for every host city.
While some stadiums have survived as tourist attractions, many others are collecting dust.
No Olympic Games would be complete, without its grand Olympic stadiums, the pride of the host city from the opening to the closing ceremonies. But, what happens to these stadiums after the games end?
Because the stadiums are built for specific events, and many tend to be far from city centres. Most of these very expensive stadiums are barely used after the games themselves. Some become tourist attractions making relatively little revenue, many others are completely abandoned, and simply decay.
These, so called white elephant stadiums,
can still rack up millions of dollars in maintenance costs,
even when completely empty. - The 2004 games in Athens was funded in great part
from unsustainable borrowing, which directly contributed to the Greek financial crisis.
With the government unable to maintain the Olympic stadiums, they fell into complete disrepair abandoned. Today, some of the facilities like the baseball,
field now housed thousands of refugees. The stadium's cost about 1.3 billion dollars to build, and used to take 67 million dollars a year to maintain.
The 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing will long be remembered,
for its historic opening ceremony.
But, the famous bird's nest stadium that held it now,
only holds a small influx of tourists,
who can ride around the historic racetrack on rented segways.
The bird's nest cost around 460 million dollars to build,
and an additional 11 million dollars a year to maintain !
The new stadiums in Rio suffered the same fate, after the 2016 Summer Olympics. 12 of the original 27 venues have not been used once since the games, and are crumbling from structural problems, suffering from frequent Vandalism, and now home to infestations of rodents and insects. Even the much loud Americana football stadium can be seen in decay together. These venues cost two billion dollars to build,
and an additional 14 million dollars a year to maintain.
And, these costly abandoned stadiums are not only an Olympic problem. The World Cup stadiums can also cost millions!
Just by sitting there, Brazil built 12 stadiums for the 2014 World Cup. Many of which are also neglected! The most expensive Stadium costing 550 million dollars to build,
is now being used as a parking !! Brazil spent more than 3.6 billion dollars on its stadiums in total. The construction and enduring maintenance costs for stadiums, have driven many cities to withdraw their bids, to host international competitions, for the 2024 Summer Olympic Games. Every city withdrew their bid to host, except for Paris.
In Los Angeles, as a result the IOC made an unprecedented move of deciding the host for the next two Summer Games at the same time,
2028 Paris & 24 Los Angeles.
If Pyeongchang Winter Olympics have cost South Korea over 13 billion dollars,
in the Olympic Stadium to be used only four times, cost 109 million dollars alone!! Current plans for the stadiums after the games are still under debate?!
It’s a challenging question for every host city.
While some stadiums have survived as tourist attractions, many others are collecting dust.
No Olympic Games would be complete, without its grand Olympic stadiums, the pride of the host city from the opening to the closing ceremonies. But, what happens to these stadiums after the games end?
Because the stadiums are built for specific events, and many tend to be far from city centres. Most of these very expensive stadiums are barely used after the games themselves. Some become tourist attractions making relatively little revenue, many others are completely abandoned, and simply decay.
These, so called white elephant stadiums,
can still rack up millions of dollars in maintenance costs,
even when completely empty. - The 2004 games in Athens was funded in great part
from unsustainable borrowing, which directly contributed to the Greek financial crisis.
With the government unable to maintain the Olympic stadiums, they fell into complete disrepair abandoned. Today, some of the facilities like the baseball,
field now housed thousands of refugees. The stadium's cost about 1.3 billion dollars to build, and used to take 67 million dollars a year to maintain.
The 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing will long be remembered,
for its historic opening ceremony.
But, the famous bird's nest stadium that held it now,
only holds a small influx of tourists,
who can ride around the historic racetrack on rented segways.
The bird's nest cost around 460 million dollars to build,
and an additional 11 million dollars a year to maintain !
The new stadiums in Rio suffered the same fate, after the 2016 Summer Olympics. 12 of the original 27 venues have not been used once since the games, and are crumbling from structural problems, suffering from frequent Vandalism, and now home to infestations of rodents and insects. Even the much loud Americana football stadium can be seen in decay together. These venues cost two billion dollars to build,
and an additional 14 million dollars a year to maintain.
And, these costly abandoned stadiums are not only an Olympic problem. The World Cup stadiums can also cost millions!
Just by sitting there, Brazil built 12 stadiums for the 2014 World Cup. Many of which are also neglected! The most expensive Stadium costing 550 million dollars to build,
is now being used as a parking !! Brazil spent more than 3.6 billion dollars on its stadiums in total. The construction and enduring maintenance costs for stadiums, have driven many cities to withdraw their bids, to host international competitions, for the 2024 Summer Olympic Games. Every city withdrew their bid to host, except for Paris.
In Los Angeles, as a result the IOC made an unprecedented move of deciding the host for the next two Summer Games at the same time,
2028 Paris & 24 Los Angeles.
If Pyeongchang Winter Olympics have cost South Korea over 13 billion dollars,
in the Olympic Stadium to be used only four times, cost 109 million dollars alone!! Current plans for the stadiums after the games are still under debate?!
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