The Olympic Dictatorship Games

Cheetah

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Today's News from Norway:
Today the arrogant leaders of the Conservative party finally gave in to pressure from the rest of their party, and actually listened to what the Norwegian people wants!

Norway will NOT host the Winter Olympics of 2022!

Background:
In 2015, IOC will decide which city will be allowed to host the 2022 Winter Olympics.

However, the Olympic Games, and especially the International Olympic Committee, have become rather less popular during the recent decade(s). They are noted for:

  • Huge, budget-overrun, extremely expensive Olympic Games with unmaintainable stadiums and infrastructure
  • Expensive, personal demands from IOC big-shots
  • Unfair distribution of incomes and expenses for the Olympic Games
  • Unreasonable demands of host city and a disregard for common people, their opinions and their wellbeing

These problems have become more and more apparent during several of the last Olympic Games, with Athens 2000 and Sochi 2014 as the most obvious examples of how wrong it can get.

The Olympic Games are two weeks of fun though, and many politicians want to bask in the glory and perceived popularity they bring. There's also tons of potential for corruption during large construction projects, and partying with other big-shots is always fun.

This means that the IOC can usually choose between several willing politicians and their cities, who will outbid each other to make IOC choose their country to exploit. This time however, things didn't go as planned:

  • On the 10th of November 2013, Germany, with Munich as the main bidder, cancelled it's Olympic plans due to the outcome of referendums held in Munich, Garmisch-Partenkirchen and the Bavarian districts of Berchtesgadener Land and Traunstein. Between 50 to 60% voted against hosting the games, citing high costs for hosting the Olympics, environmental issues and criticism of commercialization of sports in general and the IOC in particular.
  • On January 17th 2014 Sweden and Stockholm withdrew their bid, the stated reason being that the government refused to write IOC a blank check for covering the costs of the games.
  • On the 24th of March 2014 the authorities in Kraków, Poland, gave in to increasing opposition, and agreed to submit their bid to a local referendum. On the 25th of May 70% of the voters rejected the bid.

In Norway:
Norway considered bidding for the Olympic Games in 2018, when it was suggested that we would host the games in Tromsø in northern Norway. This was popular among a majority of people, but the big-shots in Oslo claimed the city was unsuited for the games and that it would be too expensive. A few years later, the processes is started to make Oslo big for the Olympics in 2022. This time all the big-shots thinks it's a wonderful idea, which will enrich the whole country...

A planned budget of $5.5 billion USD was rather hard to accept however, especially when a similar amount was "too expensive" a few years earlier. In addition, the Norwegian IOC representative has made himself rather unpopular after refusing criticism of China's human rights violations, berating Norwegian athletes for publicly showing grief over a dead brother, insult Norwegians in general, keeping several tyrannical despots as close friends and exploiting his own position for personal gains...

A few political parties were publicly opposed to hosting the Olympic Games, arguing that it was too expensive and that we could spend the money better elsewhere. Still, the leaders of the Labour Party and the Conservative Party (i.e. the two major parties of each political block) wanted the Olympics to Oslo. When they were confronted with polls showing that a growing majority of people (50, and later 70%) were against the Olympics, the general reply was that normal people don't know what's best for themselves. A public department was founded to propagandize for the Olympics, and have so far spent $30 million USD of public money to make people do as their politicians tell them to.

But in spite of the increasing opposition, the list of IOC demands (and plans by their allies) at the end went something like this:
  • The Norwegian government offers at least $5.5 billion USD and agrees to cover all budget-overruns - basically granting IOC and the Olympic committee a blank cheque.
  • IOC and it's partners will pay no taxes or fees of any kind before, during and after the Olympics.
  • No advertisement is allowed in Oslo during the games unless approved by the IOC.
  • IOC members will be granted a private lane on all roads between the stadiums, other necessary locations and their hotels; free cars and private drivers during their stay in Norway; free food and drinks at their free hotel suites; dinner and drinks with the Norwegian king on the governments bill; etc.

...

Luckily, the leaders of the Conservative party had to give in tonight, and agree not to fund this madness. The big-shots are disappointed, the people are relieved, and we're only $30 million short instead of $5.5 billion.

What's next:
This means that the two remaining cities vying for the Olympic Games of 2022 are:

  • Almaty, Kazakhstan
  • Beijing, China

Both countries are pinnacles of democracy and human rights, and the people living there overwhelmingly support spending billions on hosting the Olympics - 97% of Chinese are in favour, according to one government official.

What's to discuss?
The Olympics and the International Olympic Committee.

Have they simply become a corrupt club of big-shots who rub shoulders with despots and exploit the common people for their own pleasure?

Have they always been that way, and it has just now become very apparent?

Should Norway - or Munich, Krakow, Stockholm, or another democratic country - have accepted to host the Olympics, to try and work with IOC to reform the Olympic Games? Is reforming even IOC possible?

Do you want your city and your government to host the next Olympic Games? At any cost?

Are the Olympics today only a chance for undemocratic, oppressive regimes to show off? Were the modern Olympic Games ever "good"?
 
Philadelphia, New York City, and, as I recall, Zurich(?) also prominently pulled their bids. This is coming in the light of the nightmares that have been Brazil's run as both WC and Olympic host, the fact that London's 2012 run lost the city money and didn't drive revenue for local businesses, and the last time any Olympic host made any money on the endeavor was back in 1984 when LA hosted it. Notably LA is expected to be a frontrunner should they bid for the 2022 games (which I believe they want to). The Superbowl is getting a similar reaming as revelations are coming to light of what the NFL demands of hosts for their big game (essentially the same as what the IOC and FIFA are asking: a shiny new stadium, tons of comped services, and no taxes period.)

So it seems increasingly that, barring some change, Olympic games will be the playthings of dictatorships wanting to assert their global importance or improve international prestige. The cost of building stadia from scratch and updating infrastructure is just too frivolous and unpopular for modern, relatively uncorrupt democracies to stomach.
 
The locals politicians in Texas have gunned for the Games in the past 20 years or so - good to now we now have a shot to show off.
 
The whole build brand new stadium and all the other requirements is why this is too much of a hassle for cities to deal with. Philly and NYC, really any Northeastern US city not named Washington could host with little to no construction if the IOC wasn't insane.

Hey, look! We're having another Bejing Olympic game!

I would say Shanghai but China would be the favorite for sure.
 
Maybe the dictators will grow tired of hosting these games at some point.
 
Maybe the Olympic Games should only be allowed to happen in fully developed countries such as indeed Norway. I have proposed a similar rule for assigning UN voting power in other threads.
 
This antipathy might spillover to other international organisations that are controlled by 3rd world kleptocracies like the UN. It is a good development in general.
 
Supposedly the committee isnt a fan of repeating locations either so I cant imagine they are in love with Beijing II so quickly, but there is no chance they are legitimately stupid enough to give it to Kazakhstan right? oh wait FIFA was dumb/corrupt enough to give a world cup to Qatar, of course they are dumb enough to have a Kazakhstan olympics.
 
Beijing previously hosted the summer games and these are the winter games. I don't know if that mitigates the repeat factor. Although I think the 2018 winter games are in South Korea.
 
The locals politicians in Texas have gunned for the Games in the past 20 years or so - good to now we now have a shot to show off.

Winter Olympics in Texas? That makes as much sense as having the FIFA World Cup in the Qatar summer.
 
This antipathy might spillover to other international organisations that are controlled by 3rd world kleptocracies like the UN. It is a good development in general.

Yeah.

I'm also very much for:
1) Canada and Australia have to qualify as Europeans for the Fifa WC.
2) Canada and Australia cannot host the Fifa WC unless they consistently qualify (say the last two cups before the bid).

This should guarantee that we won't have to see them ever again and nations that actually give a damn about soccer (Denmark, Iran, Turkey, Ukraine) get the slot instead.

But what does Australia have that Ukraine doesn't?
Ad revenue.

Oh, and - yes - we should totally take Putin's WC away and give it to the Netherlands instead. Just to show him.
 
"1) Canada and Australia have to qualify as Europeans for the Fifa WC"
all for that, it would raise the standard of 'soccer' here, but can we enter Eurovision too
 
"1) Canada and Australia have to qualify as Europeans for the Fifa WC"
all for that, it would raise the standard of 'soccer' here, but can we enter Eurovision too
Sure.
I mean, heck, we are grandfathering in all sorts of people into these things. :)

You have to have an act that is silly enough, though.
 
Taxpayers in Norway now rejoice!


  • The Norwegian government offers at least $5.5 billion USD and agrees to cover all budget-overruns - basically granting IOC and the Olympic committee a blank cheque.
  • IOC and it's partners will pay no taxes or fees of any kind before, during and after the Olympics.
  • No advertisement is allowed in Oslo during the games unless approved by the IOC.
  • IOC members will be granted a private lane on all roads between the stadiums, other necessary locations and their hotels;
  • free cars and private drivers during their stay in Norway;
  • free food and drinks at their free hotel suites;
  • dinner and drinks with the Norwegian king on the governments bill; etc.

The first point pretty much nailed it completely.
The cost was far too high, and the caveat about cost overrun was a recipe for disaster.

The other points are much more emotional and hit hard on Norwegian sensibility:
Here people are equal and we see privileges for an elite VERY negatively.
The IOC's arrogance was too high... even asking for a party with compulsory participation of the King.


If the cost was 1/3rd and they didn't have those absurd requests related to taxes and privileges, the IOC would get it's Olympic in Oslo.


Only a completely corrupted government without any regards for its citizens would accept such conditions.
The list of countries still in the race is quite revealing of this point.



Government always try to sell Olympics to people with the excuse that it will bring improved infrastructures, jobs, and repay itself.
Unfortunately it has been proven over and over again that it's simply not true.

Those who gain are only the cronies of IOT that get all the contracts.

If the government wants to invest absurd quantity of money to improve infrastructures, they can just do it without having to wait for the Olympics.
Actually they can just build what is necessary and not stadiums and other crap that will become unused immediately after the sport events and finished.

At least here in Norway they actually let the people vote about it.
That's rare ... maybe they know that once people actually think about it, they will be against it.

Good riddance Olympics, the IOC is killing you.
 
So IOC wants a king? Maybe the prince of Monacco would cut it if they want to avoid the potshots at them for supporting dictatorships.
 
A victory for Norway cause they need to keep more of their oil money to spend on prison-hotels :thumbsup:

And the Olympic games should only be held in Olympia, Elis, West Peloponnese, Peloponnesian League, Hellas, Civilized world :yup:

(btw, the 'Winter Olympics' aren't really the Olympics anyway) :mischief:
 
Today's News from Norway:
Today the arrogant leaders of the Conservative party finally gave in to pressure from the rest of their party, and actually listened to what the Norwegian people wants!

Norway will NOT host the Winter Olympics of 2022!

Background:
In 2015, IOC will decide which city will be allowed to host the 2022 Winter Olympics.

However, the Olympic Games, and especially the International Olympic Committee, have become rather less popular during the recent decade(s). They are noted for:

  • Huge, budget-overrun, extremely expensive Olympic Games with unmaintainable stadiums and infrastructure
  • Expensive, personal demands from IOC big-shots
  • Unfair distribution of incomes and expenses for the Olympic Games
  • Unreasonable demands of host city and a disregard for common people, their opinions and their wellbeing

These problems have become more and more apparent during several of the last Olympic Games, with Athens 2000 and Sochi 2014 as the most obvious examples of how wrong it can get.

The Olympic Games are two weeks of fun though, and many politicians want to bask in the glory and perceived popularity they bring. There's also tons of potential for corruption during large construction projects, and partying with other big-shots is always fun.

This means that the IOC can usually choose between several willing politicians and their cities, who will outbid each other to make IOC choose their country to exploit. This time however, things didn't go as planned:

  • On the 10th of November 2013, Germany, with Munich as the main bidder, cancelled it's Olympic plans due to the outcome of referendums held in Munich, Garmisch-Partenkirchen and the Bavarian districts of Berchtesgadener Land and Traunstein. Between 50 to 60% voted against hosting the games, citing high costs for hosting the Olympics, environmental issues and criticism of commercialization of sports in general and the IOC in particular.
  • On January 17th 2014 Sweden and Stockholm withdrew their bid, the stated reason being that the government refused to write IOC a blank check for covering the costs of the games.
  • On the 24th of March 2014 the authorities in Kraków, Poland, gave in to increasing opposition, and agreed to submit their bid to a local referendum. On the 25th of May 70% of the voters rejected the bid.

In Norway:
Norway considered bidding for the Olympic Games in 2018, when it was suggested that we would host the games in Tromsø in northern Norway. This was popular among a majority of people, but the big-shots in Oslo claimed the city was unsuited for the games and that it would be too expensive. A few years later, the processes is started to make Oslo big for the Olympics in 2022. This time all the big-shots thinks it's a wonderful idea, which will enrich the whole country...

A planned budget of $5.5 billion USD was rather hard to accept however, especially when a similar amount was "too expensive" a few years earlier. In addition, the Norwegian IOC representative has made himself rather unpopular after refusing criticism of China's human rights violations, berating Norwegian athletes for publicly showing grief over a dead brother, insult Norwegians in general, keeping several tyrannical despots as close friends and exploiting his own position for personal gains...

A few political parties were publicly opposed to hosting the Olympic Games, arguing that it was too expensive and that we could spend the money better elsewhere. Still, the leaders of the Labour Party and the Conservative Party (i.e. the two major parties of each political block) wanted the Olympics to Oslo. When they were confronted with polls showing that a growing majority of people (50, and later 70%) were against the Olympics, the general reply was that normal people don't know what's best for themselves. A public department was founded to propagandize for the Olympics, and have so far spent $30 million USD of public money to make people do as their politicians tell them to.

But in spite of the increasing opposition, the list of IOC demands (and plans by their allies) at the end went something like this:
  • The Norwegian government offers at least $5.5 billion USD and agrees to cover all budget-overruns - basically granting IOC and the Olympic committee a blank cheque.
  • IOC and it's partners will pay no taxes or fees of any kind before, during and after the Olympics.
  • No advertisement is allowed in Oslo during the games unless approved by the IOC.
  • IOC members will be granted a private lane on all roads between the stadiums, other necessary locations and their hotels; free cars and private drivers during their stay in Norway; free food and drinks at their free hotel suites; dinner and drinks with the Norwegian king on the governments bill; etc.

...

Luckily, the leaders of the Conservative party had to give in tonight, and agree not to fund this madness. The big-shots are disappointed, the people are relieved, and we're only $30 million short instead of $5.5 billion.

What's next:
This means that the two remaining cities vying for the Olympic Games of 2022 are:

  • Almaty, Kazakhstan
  • Beijing, China

Both countries are pinnacles of democracy and human rights, and the people living there overwhelmingly support spending billions on hosting the Olympics - 97% of Chinese are in favour, according to one government official.
Yikes. A blank cheque? Limitless corruption?

How are the athletes supposed to breathe in China ('cause unlike the Summer Olympics, they can't do the skiing events indoors away from the pollution)?

Do you want your city and your government to host the next Olympic Games? At any cost?
Once upon a time I might have said Calgary should go for it again since they did such a wonderful job in 1988. But not now.

...the last time any Olympic host made any money on the endeavor was back in 1984 when LA hosted it.
Calgary (1988) disagrees with you.

(btw, the 'Winter Olympics' aren't really the Olympics anyway) :mischief:
I used to get up in the middle of the night to watch hockey games live, when the Olympics were in Europe or Japan. There's not a single event I'd do that for during a Summer Olympics.
 
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