Costs, Complexity and Size of the Games

Abstract

The unparalleled growth in the scale, complexity and profile of the Olympics over the course of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries — although a symptom of the historical success of the event and its governance — has generated a myriad of risks for organisers. In recent times this has reached a potential tipping point, leading the Olympic Games Study Commission (2002, p. 16) to report that ‘ … [t]he Games have reached a critical size which may put their future success at risk if the size continues to increase.’ There is concern that continued growth of the event could threaten its long-term viability, such that in the future cities might be put off from bidding to host the Games if the risks are perceived as being too great — just as the public of the US city of Denver rejected a referendum for state funding of the 1976 Winter Olympics due to concern over rising costs and the environmental impacts of the event. (Giddens 1999a, p. 3)