Abandoned After the Olympics: Greece's $11 Billion Mistake

hello everybody welcome back to another episode of side projects this one is all about greece's 2004 olympics which cost them possibly 11 billion it's a bit of a mistake so let's jump into it [Music] greece held the first ever olympics in 1724 and the first model olympics in 1896 given their rich history in the international games the summer olympics of 2004 were seen as an opportunity for greece to restore the game's historical values more importantly it was a chance for greece to show itself on a global stage while the games themselves were a success the financial situation was not the financial situation was absolutely dreadful the event went drastically over budget but this has been the case at literally every modern olympics so well what made greece quite so different the financial crisis of 2008 pushed greece into a dramatic economic recession arguably the worst in europe as the country became a punching bag for world leaders and newspaper some experts pointed to the 2004 games as being a bit of a tipping point for the greek economy that year's olympiad has since been hailed as one of the worst failures in olympic history the 11 billion dollar price tag became the scapegoat for greece's future financial difficulties but the truth is a lot more complicated than that athens has struggled with the same problems that faced so many olympic hosts today the city is home to a handful of former olympic venues that have since become dilapidated or expensive to maintain yet economists now point out that the fiscal deficit of the game slightly around a few billion dollars is about one percent of greece's debt in fact infrastructure investments from the games may have benefited the greek capital and limited the consequences of the recession so were the 2004 athens games actually an 11 billion mistake following the 1896 olympics athens went a century without hosting the games as the 1996 olympics approached greece made a bid to hold the centennial celebration of the games in the city where it all started this proposal came in 1990 and it was thoroughly rejected by the international olympic committee the ioc but the greek community didn't give up over the following years they did their best to address concerns that came up in the earlier bid mostly surrounding corruption pollution and infrastructure athens hosted the 1997 world championships in athletics which was a huge success though much smaller in scale this moded well for the city later that year athens was selected to host the 2004 summer olympic games they won the bid because of the city's history the ioc felt that the public's perception of the olympics was veering away from the traditional values of sportsmanship and international cooperation so athens was selected as a means of bringing back that tradition but the ioc also chose hosts based on their ambitions hoping that grand displays attract more viewers and increase profits the greek committee made sure to accommodate revealing an enthusiastic plan to prepare their infrastructure for hosting duties the summer olympics would include competitions in 28 sports from basketball and badminton to taekwondo and table tennis within these 28 sports were 301 medal events each event including a series of rounds before the medal events more than 10 000 athletes from more than 200 countries would compete the wide variety of sports called for a plethora of new venues 31 in total the influx of athletes required high quality housing near the arenas and stadiums new roads and train stations would be necessary to transport participants officials and press the expanding media corps would need a massive headquarters to meet the increased demands for round-the-clock coverage most importantly the influx of people would require an entirely new airport this would be an enormous undertaking for just seven years but the greeks convinced the ioc that they could achieve such a feat and with the world watching preparations began the athens 2004 organizing committee set the project's budget at 3 billion if that seems unreasonably low for such an undertaking well that's because it absolutely is as is tradition with the olympics the budget only includes projects directly related to the games in other words the new airport rail lines and roads wouldn't count for the final cost i'll tell you something airports ain't cheap as such work on a new airport began before the ioc chose greece to host perhaps to signal the seriousness of the greek committee's intent the brand new athens international airport was finished well ahead of the games in 2001 with 8 kilometers of runway to serve the upcoming influx the project cost more than 2 billion on its own while its early completion seemed to indicate that all was going well the rest of the preparations well they wouldn't go so smoothly at the start of 2004 with the olympics scheduled to begin in august vast portions of the project were drastically behind schedule this included work on several key venues including the main stadium which would host the opening ceremony a tram line to connect stadiums to the olympic village was also drastically behind schedule with the progress in athens being reported on news worldwide criticism quickly flowed in many sources questioned whether the games would begin at the scheduled time well miraculously they did construction teams met deadlines by working around the clock and by scrapping non-essential aspects of the plans the aquatic center for example was initially designed with a glass roof but that aspect was abandoned the main olympic stadium was completed two months before the opening ceremony as was the tram line the final touches were put on several of the arenas in august mere days before the olympics was set to open not only did the games begin on time though but the opening ceremony was widely praised it was held in the olympic stadium designed by spanish architect santiago calatrava who had his hands in several key projects the stadium's defining features were a retractable glass roof and two massive arches to bear that roof's weight the opening ceremony seemed to bring an end to the question of whether the greeks could pull off hosting the games however there were other vital questions in the years leading up to the olympics as early as 2002 western media began questioning whether athens was a safe enough city to host the games the criticism was extreme at times with one news report claiming that the only place worse than athens to hold the olympics was baghdad harsh the reports seem to spook a handful of countries particularly the us and the uk so so sensitive so the two countries demanded that the greek government spared no costs in providing additional security to ward off terrorist attacks the price to meet these demands was over 1.2 billion dollars the security cost combined with event administration and essential infrastructure brought the total cost of the olympics to 8.5 billion euros or 11 billion dollars keep in mind this does not include public infrastructure especially for transportation considering all of that the initial budget of 3 billion had been absolutely shattered unlike that glass ceiling that they didn't build on the aquatic center as the olympics came to a close a couple of weeks later they were hailed as a huge success participants and spectators remained safe throughout greece had its best olympic tally ever and everything ran smoothly including the fancy new tram system in the immediate aftermath of the olympics all seemed well in greece and things did go well for a few years then it all changed [Music] for several years after the olympics greece basked in the glory of its success shaw ticket sales though promising initially were down dramatically from 6.5 million at the 2000 sydney olympics to 3.5 million in athens during 2004 tourism declined from 13.9 to 13.3 million annual visitors however the games were a success and the new airport and rail system proved essential to the local economy in fact by 2007 greek tourism was an all-time high of 16 million thanks in no small part to the olympic-inspired publicity and infrastructure upgrades however with the global financial crisis of 2008 well that came to an end of all the countries hit hard by the crisis greece was among the worst by 2009 government debt reached 300 billion dollars though a relatively small number compared to countries like the united states this figure dwarfed the size of greece's economy putting them in dire financial straits at this time reports began to surface about the financial impact of the olympics no matter how many pundits called them a success athens suffered from an ailment that plagues many olympic hosts the city was now filled with decrepit unused sporting stadiums by 2010 more than half of the 31 venues were reportedly in disrepair these facilities included a baseball stadium a humongous kayak course and facilities built for less popular sports like table tennis field hockey and judo as troubling as it was to see the structure's decay the alternative was hardly better the facilities that survived required extravagant costs just to maintain them this conundrum common among olympic and world cup hosts is called the white elephant problem a white elephant is something too valuable to be disposed of but too expensive to justifiably maintain the athens committee had a plan to avoid this outcome but the financial crisis curtailed that strategy the original plan was simple arenas for popular sports would continue to be utilized for their original purpose other venues like the one for kayaking would be purchased by the government or private equity firms then repurposed into a space with more utility the kayaking course would be converted into a water park for instance however given the scale of the debt crisis there was just no longer enough liquid capital floating around for anyone to make these necessary purchases and the buildings just fell into disrepair with these massive reminders of the costs of the olympics the games quickly became a scapegoat not just within the country but worldwide publications like the wall street journal asked can greece blame its financial crisis on the olympics before long this narrative spread like wildfire of course it's demonstrably false remember the total cost of the olympics was 11 billion revenue from broadcasting rights and ticket sales totaled 2 billion about 3.5 billion was covered in a gradual tax from the previous years leaving about five to six billion dollars in unrecovered costs while this certainly isn't chump change by any means it was still a drop in the ocean of greece's debt even as economists pointed out that the crisis couldn't be blamed on the olympics the argument changed if it didn't cause the crisis the olympics symbolized the same issues that the greek government struggled with for years in the words of one paper the 2004 olympics were a microcosm of greek economic dysfunction missed budget estimates poor planning financial mismanagement despite the pushback the legacy seemed set in stone the olympics were a massive mistake and an expensive one at that with each successful olympiad the greeks were lambasted and paraded as an example of what not to do however with more years of hindsight a more nuanced truth has come to light following the photos of some of greece's abandoned stadiums it seemed that the verdict was in yeah while some infrastructure has become unnecessary much of it is still in use today including the largest stadiums and venues the olympic stadium complex the largest of all the buildings became the home for two football clubs it's hosted countless concerts and athletic events including the 2007 champions league final the basketball stadium was also turned over to athens as best basketball team the velodrome aquatic center tennis center and other stadiums are still in use for their original purpose hosting professional teams or private sports clubs even the international media center remains in use today having been converted into a fully fledged mall other venues have become convention centers and one building was converted into the headquarters for the greek ministry of health the olympic village became public housing now home to thousands of greek citizens so while some stadiums have fallen into disrepair there is no question that much of the construction is still being put to good use if not for the greek financial crisis then the unused buildings would likely have been fully converted and the olympics would be a landmark success story for greece yet the country has found it difficult to shed this reputation and perhaps that's for good reason compared to summer olympics after 2004 greece managed to keep expenses reasonably low the cost per event in athens was 9.8 million dollars compare that to 14.9 for rio in 2016 22.5 million for beijing in 2008 and a whopping 49.5 million for london in 2012. by all accounts the athens olympics were among the best run games of this century they were just unfortunately held in a country that was already on shaky financial grounds and that's why in the end it seems that they might have been a mistake thankfully for greece a series of much more colossal failures have ended the conversation around athens 2004. the olympics in london rio and sochi are the newest examples of just how hard it is to host a successful olympiad today the ioc is changing the way that hosts are chosen instead of selecting ambitious plans in developing countries the committee is beginning to favor cities that already have the infrastructure they're considering allowing whole regions to host games and taking a friendlier view towards repeat hosts perhaps before too long athens could indeed host again so i really hope you enjoyed that video if you did please do hit that thumbs up button below don't forget to subscribe also if you're looking for more from me this channel is the sister channel of another larger channel called megaprojects which has megaprojects on it you can check it out there's a link below and thank you for [Music] watching

Channel: Sideprojects

Views: 648,390

Rating: 4.9116082 out of 5

Keywords: megaprojects, construction, engineering, projects

Id: wXr-cGnSNkM

Length: 13min 4sec (784 seconds)

Published: Thu Apr 15 2021

Reddit Comments

[u/astalavizione]

Σίγουρα μείνανε πράγματα από τους Ολυμπιακούς, κυρίως στον βαθμό των υποδομών. Ας μη γελιόμαστε, το Μετρό, Αεροδρόμιο και η Αττική Οδός αλλά και κάποια άλλα περιφερειακά έργα πχ Τραμ, Προαστιακός ήταν πράγματα που έλειπαν από την Αθήνα.

Από εγκαταστάσεις, πέρα από το ΟΑΚΑ, έχουν μείνει τα γήπεδα πχ Πανθεσαλλικό, Παγκρήτιο κλπ, ενώ και της ξιφασκίας έχει μετατραπεί σε κέντρο εκδηλώσεων που φιλοξενεί είτε παραστάσεις είτε expos.

Αυτό δεν μειώνει πάντως το πόσο κρίμα είναι να βλέπεις εγκαταστάσεις να σαπίζουν και εκεί φταίνε οι κυβερνήσεις που πέρασαν και δεν έκαναν οποιαδήποτε απόπειρα να τις αξιοποιήσουν - πουλήσουν

[u/ProdromosP]

Στην πραγματικότητα έγινε πολύ καλύτερη αξιοποίηση από άλλους Ολυμπιακούς, όπως στο Πεκίνο 2008 και στο Ρίο 2016. Ο συγκεκριμένος έκραζε το υπερσύγχρονο δίκτυο σιδηρόδρομων στην Ισπανία [ AVE: Spain's high speed NIGHTMARE - VisualPolitik EN - YouTube ], άλλα όταν η Βρετανία και η Ιαπωνία τα κάνουν τα υμνεί [ High Speed 2: The UK's £100 Billion Rail Project - YouTube ]. Λες και οι φτωχές χώρες του Νότου δεν μπορούν να πετύχουν σπουδαία πράγματα.

[u/Yparxiakaskeptomenos]

Ο τύπος είναι αρκετά καλός, στα βίντεο του, παρόλα αυτά λυπηρό το θέμα για εμάς...

[u/geoponos]

Στα 11 δισεκατομμύρια όταν βάζεις το αεροδρόμιο, τον περιφερειακό και το Τραμ, χάνεις το νόημα. Αυτά φέρνουν ακόμα και σήμερα χρήματα.

Συμφωνώ βέβαια με τον "Άσπρο Ελέφαντα". Δε γίνεται να συντηρείς κάτι τόσο ακριβό απλά επειδή το έκανες.

Επίσης συμφωνώ στο ότι έχουμε κάνει τους Ολυμπιακούς επικεφαλίδα γιατί είναι κάτι φανταχτερό. Όταν πληρώνεις όμως ολόκληρα δις για υποβρύχια που γέρνουν αλλού έγιναν τα μεγάλα φαγοπότια.

[u/WebElectronic8157]

Γενικά ο Simon Whistler δεν κάνει καλή έρευνα σε πολλά από τα βίντεο του, οπότε παρακολουθήστε με προσοχή. Βέβαια είναι μία αλήθεια ότι η διαχείριση των ολυμπιακών έργων είναι άθλια.

[u/Vaseline13]

Unpopular Opinion:

Οι Ολυμπιακοί Αγώνες έκαναν περισσότερο καλό πάρα κακό στην Αθήνα και στην Ελλάδα καθολικά.

Ουσιαστικά ανάγκασαν τους γέροντες πολιτικούς να ασχοληθούν με την απαρχαιωμένη πολεοδομία της Ελλάδας και μας ώθησε στον 21ο αιώνα, ενώ είμασταν κολλημένοι στα 80ς μέχρι το 2002.

Θα μπορούσε να είχε γίνει αυτό χωρίς τα 11+ δις για τους Ολυμπιακούς; Προφανώς, αν είχαμε ποτέ πολιτικούς που δεν γράφανε το καλό τις χώρας στα αρχίδια τους, αλλά και με αυτούς που είχαμε μπορεί να γινόντουσαν τα έργα, απλά θα είχαμε πράματα όπως το αεροδρόμιο και το μέτρο πολύ πιο μετά, και η ζωή των Αθηναίων θα ήταν εξαιρετικά ποίο χαοτική και καταθλιπτική.

[u/ijustmadeanaccountto]

Allegedly.

[u/realankos]

Εκείνες τις χρονιές "φαγώθηκαν" άπειρα χρήματα.

[u/GlueR]

Συγγνώμη, ο τύπος ξεκινάει λέγοντας ότι οι πρώτοι ολυμπιακοί αγώνες διοργανώθηκαν το 1724; Ακούω κάτι λάθος; Εννοεί το 776 πΧ;