So true, security would be a huge issue. There are already many soldiers stationed in the streets and that is just to deal with regular city life.
The incident you are referring to, might it be the Luxor massacre?
My God… my egg timer is medeival!
Pretty much.
Actually, let me add to that.
When was the last time you climbed into a taxi in Montreal where the meter was run by a turning spring inside a sheath, like a bicycle cable, that was snaked into the floor and connected to some part of the drive train?
Indeed. One would hope that any city or country in africa that found themselves with a spare $5-$10 billion would spend it on something more useful than the Olympics. I believe Athens cost something like $14B, but I’m sure London will manage to crush that in true budget-busting style.
Probably sometime in the mid- to late-eighties. The computerized LED models are, I suspect, far less subject to tampering and mechanical failure, but I wouldn’t use perfectly-serviceable mechanical meters as a sign of a culture’s backwardness, especially since my own city only dumped them 15 or so years ago, well after our own Olympics in 1976.
In addition to poverty, how much of a factor is climate? Summer Olympics in Africa, you could have Track and Field athletes dropping like flies. If they plan to hold these events in a temperature-controlled stadium, well, first somebody in Africa has to build one…
If a southern-hemisphere city held a Summer Olympics in their summer, it likely would be a ratings bonanza via stir-crazy viewers in northern-hemisphere winter climes, so that would have to figure into any bid I’d think.
A Winter Olympics held in n-h summer probably wouldn’t do nearly as good tho…
Actually, I recently heard a presentation by a Kazakh classmate (visibly of South Korean descent, which is disorienting for a Westerner full of subconscious prejudices like myself, considering that she has a strongly Slavic accent) which contended that Kazakhstan is a very international and intercultural place, where racism is nearly unheard of. Sounds like a fantastic site for the Olympic Games to me.
Yes, but how much of the expense in Athens was for stuff like the subway system that will benefit the city long after, or athletic facilities that didn’t exist? London, on the other hand, already has thousands of hotel rooms, extensive mass transit and athletic facilities, so I’ll be curious to see what the final budget turns out to be.
The 1984 Los Angeles games cost in the hundreds of millions (and I think turned a profit). Partly that was because it was over twenty years ago when the security requirements were less complex, but also because they spread out the events and used a lot of existing facilities.
Nobody has held an Olympics in Africa for essentially the same reason that nobody’s running an NFL team in Los Angeles; because nobody with the dough has expressed serious interest in doing so.
There’s no reason you COULDN’T hold an Olympics in Cairo or Cape Town, if those governments were willing to pony up $20 billion or so. Which they could do if they felt like it. Evidently, they don’t. I know Cape Town had a bid, but it wasn’t a serious one. You’ve got to bring big bucks to the table, and bid through several cycles, to get considered.
I mean, they gave the Olympics to Atlanta, for Christ’s sake. Atlanta. If Atlanta can hold the Olympics, anyone can.
Obviously, we’ve known different Mexicans.
Well, a fair chunk of it went on rushing stuff to completion regardless of cost, or building pointless white elephants, or corruption. Here’s an article that gives the grumpy viewpoint - I’m sure it goes a bit OTT, but it gives a flavour of what happened.
It has thousands of hotel rooms that are often fully booked already, a mass transit system barely coping with daily commuter traffic, and very limited sports facilities beyond football/rugby stadia. We are now being prepared for a bill of up to $18 billion.
I suspect that if they had held the LA Olympics at a point in time when the city had experienced a decade of solid economic growth and very limited infrastructure investment it might not have been such a resounding success - you need an element of spare capacity, and building that out is very costly. It would also be interesting to know how many of the existing venues used in LA were funded by the taxpayer to some extent as part of the general US obsession with having huge sports facilites everywhere.
Cape Town has a Mediterranean climate, like Athens or San Francisco. What makes you think Africa is necessarily warmer than anywhere else?
I think a great many Londoners are indeed Asians and are proud of it.
I didn’t know that the London games were going to be that expensive. Although the UK is a more properous country that Greece, so perhaps it can better absorb the expense. I have heard the suggestion that the Olympics should be permanently located in one city (Athens, perhaps?) because of the enormous expense.
Plus there’s those Africanized honey bees. They’re not gonna like it one bit, and I bet they’re even meaner on their home turf.
Bear in mind that this is the country which unveiled an £800 million tent ($1.6 Billion at todays rates) to an apathetic planet, and managed to build the worlds most expensive stadium for roughly the same amount. The estimate for the London Olympic Stadium is only about half a billion pounds, which is almost reasonable - if it weren’t for the fact that the costs have another five years to spiral. Plus which, in London infrastructure projects like e.g. upgrading a single large tube station can cost up to half a billion quid, and a billion dollars here and there soon build up an impressive bill - As a taxpayer, I’m quivering in fear.
The UK can afford it, but then the US can afford the war in Iraq. Doesn’t make either good value for money.
South African cities, outside of the townships, are practically indistinguishable from those in the United States or Australia. Except for the nearly nonexistent public transit infrastructure, and a level of crime that makes 1980s-era New York seem like a small town in Saskatchewan by comparison. Cape Town or Johannesburg could probably pull off an Olympics, financially speaking, but would fear of crime keep tourists away?
Also, how is the weather during what would be a South African winter? I’m told that Jo’burg in July can get chilly, although it’s nothing like a North American Rust Belt winter.
Dunno about the Olympics, but I’d be pretty happy if Abuja would be the one to host the 2014 Commonwealth Games just to keep them far away from me and my council tax. It’s similar in that it’s a case of no African city has yet hosted those either. Fine, have them and welcome to them, say I.
And I also expect London’s Olympics to be a big financial mess, so yes, I’m on the “grumpy” side of all this. 
Same as it is projected to be now. With an extra zero on the end.