I love these short documentary style videos by Vox.com.
I am a ginormous sports fan. I love to play it, watch it, learn new sports I love to just do it. Go all in. Stay competitive. But physical play aside, sports is also one of the biggest growth machines to low income nations. The Olympics are the prime example of this. Take a look at the economic benefits that London recieved one year after the 2012 games https://www.olympic.org/news/london-2012-to-provide-long-lasting-economic-benefits.
Estimates now suggest that the 2012 Games are expected to create 17,900 additional jobs per year between 2012 and 2015, with 70,000 workless Londoners already helped into Games-related employment, creating a labour market legacy.
The large number of tourists who flocked to London for the 2012 Olympic Games also helped lift the British economy, with figures released by the Office of National Statistics showing that the 590,000 people who visited the city for the Games, or attended a ticketed event, spent an average of GBP 1,290 during their visit, compared with GBP 650 by other visitors.
In case you were too lazy to read the entire article, here are some of the main points I want you to take a look at. Now these are numbers that show signficant increased value that the olympics brought to an ALREADY BOOMING/ESTABLISHED economy in London. Imagine what it’ll do to an economy like Rio de Janeiro.
Per Capita GDP
Rio – 11,786 USD (2011) London – 51,978 USD (2012)
My Point:
With that much projected income that the Rio Games are going to generate, Why is it so hard to disperse the funds equally to the people that have.. oh idk.. been FORCED to move into the shadows for the world to play sport?
This is my one and only knock about organized sports on this level and many other professional levels. How do organizations like the NFL, NBA, MLB, Euro League soccer and clearly the Olympics generate enough money to sustain whole economies, yet use it in these cases to relocate low income projects, build soundproof walls that somehow are only transparent to showcase their shiny new schools in which the families who live in that area can’t afford to go to.
That being said. Go U.S.A.
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