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Olympic Games: no benefit to the national economy

Dec 01, 2010 / alpMedia
Switzerland is once again discussing its candidacy for the 2022 Winter Olympics. Environmental organisations are warning against the ecological and economic repercussions. Even Marco Blatter, former CEO of Swiss Olympic, has been quoted on Swiss radio, saying that he was glad the 2006 Games were not held in the Valais. He added that in Turin/I the Games had grown out of all proportion. "With all the infrastructure investments Turin cost around CHF 4.5 bn; Vancouver is costing around CHF 6 bn; and Sochi 2014 is officially budgeting for CHF 13 bn," reports Switzerland's SonntagsZeitung.
Maintaining the ski jumps in Turin/I costs EUR 1.6 m every year.
Image caption:
Maintaining the ski jumps in Turin/I costs EUR 1.6 m every year. © Francesco Pastorelli / CIPRA Italien
And as CIPRA illustrated in AlpsInsight the sports facilities continue to cost lots of money even once the Games are over. In addition there has been no sign of the powerful growth surge that Turin had anticipated. The SonntagsZeitung also writes that Switzerland's Sports Minister Ueli Maurer noted that no direct benefit to the national economy was to be expected from the Olympics.
Sources and additional information: www.umwelt-graubuenden.ch/olympiaden.html (de), www.drs1.ch/www/de/drs1/sendungen/top/de (de), www.cipra.org/de/alpmedia/publikationen/4542 (de/fr/it/sl), SonntagsZeitung 21. November 2010, www.nolympia.de (de)
Filed under: sporting events, sport, Olympics