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so a few weeks ago I told you the story
of the Tokyo Olympics in 2020 and all
the problems that they are facing as you
know if the Olympic Games are one of the
most expensive events that a city can
host nonetheless usually City Hall's go
crazy to get a chance to organise the
Olympics usually they always have the
support of their national governments
and their citizens in fact each time
they make a survey most of the people
are happy about hosting the Olympic
Games the main opinion is that an event
like the Olympics brings a lot of good
into the country it increases tourism
the host city is renovated and the
country becomes fashionable attractive
investors and businessman from all over
the world well if you've seen our video
about Tokyo you know that this isn't
exactly true in fact the Olympics can
create big problems in Japan might end
up going bankrupt from going so far over
budget
in fact we can say there is a big debate
about whether it's good or bad to host
the Olympic Games and guess what
Olympic excitement is not exactly having
its best hour until 2012 each time the
International Olympic Committee met to
choose the next host city there were
around five candidates however the 2024
games had just two candidates Los
Angeles and Paris
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many capitals like Budapest or Rome
retired their bid at the last minute and
others like Hamburg and Germany
organized a referendum where citizens
voted against hosting the Olympics yes
you heard that right there is the
general disappointment about the
Olympics and this might be a big problem
for the International Olympic Committee
if nobody wants to host I mean what
could happen to the future of the
Olympic Games and the bigger question of
course is well is this the end of the
Olympic spirit so what could we do to
keep the Olympic flame burning well
today we're going to answer all of those
questions but before we do let's take a
look back at the history Olympic
breakfast I'm sure that every one of you
knows that the Olympic Games were
created in ancient Greece but the truth
is that the modern Olympics has nothing
to do with Mount Olympus it really
started in the 1896 with a French born
Baron named Pierre de Coubertin
along with a Greek man named evangelist
zapper they convinced the Greek
government to organize some games the
same way that the ancient Greeks had
back then nationalism was high in Greece
so everything that helps to inflame the
national pride was seen as a good idea
by the government this is how the first
modern Olympics were organized in Athens
nonetheless Pierre de Coubertin had
bigger plans than simple nationalist
propaganda this could be an
international event
but in order to achieve this the host
city had to rotate this is how the
International Olympic Committee also
known as IOC was born the IOC is an
organization responsible for ensuring
that every four years we have the Winter
Olympics the Summer Olympics and the
Paralympics put another way this
committees mission is to promote sport
and tolerance among nations and this was
a pretty wonderful idea but do hold on
for just a second because we are just
getting started with our story the first
Olympic Games were pretty modest events
that were organized next to
international exhibitions but things
really changed in the year 1936 as you
know back then
Nazi Germany what they were about to
start their world conquest
to this end they needed to improve their
image abroad and the idea of wrapping
themselves with the flag of sport
excellence and tolerance between nations
sounded like heaven to the ears of Adolf
Hitler and this is why the bell in
Olympic Games in 1936 became the first
Olympic super reduction in history it
cost more than 30 million US dollars at
the time and that was an insane amount
of money back in the day the president
four host cities overspending on the
Olympic Games while it all came from
Nazi Germany
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but the first big economic catastrophe
well that came many years later with the
Montreal Olympics in 1976 those games
ended up costing eight times more than
the initial budget and they had lasting
financial consequences Canada didn't
finish paying the debt and incur to
finance those games until 2006 they even
had to create a new special tax for
tobacco in order to cover the cost
and the story here it's really simple I
mean there are lots of cities who want
to host the Olympics but first they need
to be chosen by the IOC and as you can
imagine the more you are willing to
spend the higher your chances of winning
the bit and listen I could probably
guess what you're thinking right now why
is money that's important to the
International Olympic Committee do you
know I mean didn't we just say that what
matters here is the tolerance the
excellence and the sports well yeah you
are right but the budget is not the only
element that the IOC takes into account
when it chooses a host city there are
plenty of other factors that they need
to keep in mind bribery scandal
threatens to shrink 2002 Winter Games
and that is just one example according
to the IFC manual each time they visit
one candidate City the Town Hall must
pay for a four or five-star hotel an
international breakfast and luxury
private car speech of their members and
yes this is actually specified in the
written guidelines and listen according
to recent investigations the parties
that are held to entertain the IOC
members would pretty much make
Berlusconi's four G's look like Sunday
Mass all right so you might think that
with that last statement I'm
exaggerating a little but really I am
NOT
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at least two IOC members accepted offers
of prostitution from the Amsterdam
committee that bid for the 1992 Summer
Games as you can see it's not like the
IOC members live like rock stars indeed
I would say that rock stars wish they
lived like IOC members but well do you
know what the best part of all of this
is well their organization makes
millions of dollars every year but they
aren't even registered as a company
the IOC is technically a nonprofit
organization headquartered in
Switzerland all right so what does that
actually mean
well essentially it means that they
don't need to pay taxes and they can use
all kinds of strategies to hide their
accounting book well it essentially
means that they don't need to pay taxes
and they can use all kinds of strategies
to hide their accounting books now you
might remember that we previously did a
video about esports where we talked
about Formula One
well Formula One well that's a publicly
traded company and that's why on visual
politic we could give you accurate
numbers for how much money they make
with the Olympics it's far far more
difficult you can make estimations based
on how much they charge for the
broadcasting rights but that's that's
pretty much it so now you may be
wondering why am i sticking quite so
much on how much money the IOC actually
makes look that's because when somebody
has a good income and almost no spending
I mean don't forget that the games are
pretty much paid almost entirely by
local governments well then you can
invest in things like this astroturf
thing is the practice of masking the
sponsors of a message or organization
for example political advertising
religious or public relations to make it
appear as though it originates from and
is supported by grassroots participants
in other words you can pay for things
like the Olympic Studies centers which
have a presence in several universities
all around the globe their job is
basically to produce academic research
to prove with scientific research and
data that hosting the Olympics is as
good as winning the lottery but listen
this is not the end of the story here
but I told you some of the reasons why a
city is chosen to host the Olympic but
this is still not the end of our story
today I told you some of the reasons
previously why
a city would be chosen to host the
Olympics well another one is what they
call the Olympic feeling among the
citizens this means how much people in
the city or country are actually in
favor of hosting the games so if you're
watching this video from London you
probably have some idea of what I'm
talking about I mean all of a sudden the
local media is talking about it your
friends but the Olympic logo on their
Facebook profile picture and it's almost
impossible to find critics on any talk
show I mean it's really in the interest
of the entire government and the
sponsors to silence all of the
discordant voices so this is probably
why this happens and then I mean what's
the conclusion we can draw it from all
of this well in a city like Madrid more
than 85% of citizens wanted the Olympic
Games according to a survey and a
similar thing happens in Tokyo and in
pretty much any other host city so all
of this explains partly the rush to
organise the Olympics pretty much any
cost
Japan has already announced they will
spend over 20 billion United States
dollars for their Tokyo Olympics in 2020
Rio de Janeiro in 2012 cost more than 12
billion dollars for the Brazilian
taxpayer and then there's Greece I mean
they're still paying their debts from
Athens in 2004 nonetheless though things
they are changing
is there any future for the Olympics as
we said before in the 90s and the first
decade of this century any time the IOC
met there were around five candidate
cities nonetheless in the vote for the
Olympics in 2020 the one that Tokyo won
there were just three candidates in the
last two bids for the Olympics 2024 in
2028 there wasn't even a single vote
because there was only one candidate
city Los Angeles in one case and Paris
in the other cities like Rome Budapest
and Stockholm which once bid for the
Olympics have already simply retired
from the race they just don't think it's
worth the money
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and all of those economists who were
once silenced while they're starting to
appear in the media meanwhile the
Olympic Games are losing a lot of their
appeal for audiences there are less and
less viewers every time it runs
platforms like Netflix HBO or even
indeed YouTube are becoming big
competition for traditional television
this means that by the time Tokyo 2020
it sells many of you will be watching a
TV show or official politic video
instead of the synchronized swimming
competition and so well now you might be
wondering well how did the International
Olympic Committee react to this well the
answer it's probably in a disappoint you
a little bit
IOC agenda 2020 allows the Olympics in
different host countries I mean I'm not
saying this is a bad idea but it does
make little sense if your goal is to
reduce wasted money when organising the
Olympic Games I mean yeah it is good now
that the spending could be divided among
the tax payers of two different
countries but they'll also have twice as
many venues as before so in other words
it's not actually that great of an idea
now wait just a second err because this
is not the only proposal you see lately
there's a movement that's suggesting
something a bit more revolutionary they
want to get rid of City rotation this
would mean that the Olympic Games would
always be organized in the same city
this way we just need to buy one stadium
and one olympic villa that could be
reused every single time some economists
like andrew smallest suggest los angeles
is the perfect city to become the
eternal Olympic host it's big enough
they have an International Airport and
they can receive all the tourists and
they also have a pretty solid media
industry but this solution has a problem
if there is no competition among cities
to host the Olympics and the IOC would
lose its negotiating leverage
there would be no incentive to bribe or
provide luxury to IOC leaders and sooner
or later Los Angeles or some other city
that would become the permanent host
would start demanding things like a
greater share of the money from the
broadcasting rights
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so now the question comes around - do
you think the International Olympic
Committee will find an alternative
solution to get back their lost prestige
or perhaps we will see the end of the
Olympic Games as we know it well please
leave your answer in the comments
section below meanwhile if you want to
know more about the Tokyo Olympics in
2020 and all of the troubles they are
creating in Japan do click here to see
that video also please do visit our
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at reconsider Mediacom this is the
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