• Complain

Andrew Zimbalist - Circus Maximus: The Economic Gamble Behind Hosting the Olympics and the World Cup

Here you can read online Andrew Zimbalist - Circus Maximus: The Economic Gamble Behind Hosting the Olympics and the World Cup full text of the book (entire story) in english for free. Download pdf and epub, get meaning, cover and reviews about this ebook. year: 2015, publisher: Brookings Institution Press, genre: Politics. Description of the work, (preface) as well as reviews are available. Best literature library LitArk.com created for fans of good reading and offers a wide selection of genres:

Romance novel Science fiction Adventure Detective Science History Home and family Prose Art Politics Computer Non-fiction Religion Business Children Humor

Choose a favorite category and find really read worthwhile books. Enjoy immersion in the world of imagination, feel the emotions of the characters or learn something new for yourself, make an fascinating discovery.

No cover
  • Book:
    Circus Maximus: The Economic Gamble Behind Hosting the Olympics and the World Cup
  • Author:
  • Publisher:
    Brookings Institution Press
  • Genre:
  • Year:
    2015
  • Rating:
    3 / 5
  • Favourites:
    Add to favourites
  • Your mark:
    • 60
    • 1
    • 2
    • 3
    • 4
    • 5

Circus Maximus: The Economic Gamble Behind Hosting the Olympics and the World Cup: summary, description and annotation

We offer to read an annotation, description, summary or preface (depends on what the author of the book "Circus Maximus: The Economic Gamble Behind Hosting the Olympics and the World Cup" wrote himself). If you haven't found the necessary information about the book — write in the comments, we will try to find it.

The numbers are staggering: China spent $40 billion to host the 2008 Summer Olympic Games in Beijing and Russia spent $50 billion for the 2014 Sochi Winter Games. Brazils total expenditures are thought to have been as much as $20 billion for the World Cup this summer and Qatar, which will be the site of the 2022 World Cup, is estimating that it will spend $200 billion. How did we get here? And is it worth it? Those are among the questions noted sports economist Andrew Zimbalist answers in Circus Maximus: The Economic Gamble Behind Hosting the Olympics and the World Cup. Both the Olympics and the World Cup are touted as major economic boons for the countries that host them, and the competition is fierce to win hosting rights. Developing countries especially see the events as a chance to stand in the worlds spotlight. Circus Maximus traces the path of the Olympic Games and the World Cup from noble sporting events to exhibits of excess. It exposes the hollowness of the claims made by their private industry boosters and government supporters, all illustrated through a series of case studies ripping open the experiences of Barcelona, Sochi, Rio, and London. Zimbalist finds no net economic gains for the countries that have played host to the Olympics or the World Cup. While the wealthy may profit, those in the middle and lower income brackets do not, and Zimbalist predicts more outbursts of political anger like that seen in Brazil surrounding the 2014 World Cup.

Andrew Zimbalist: author's other books


Who wrote Circus Maximus: The Economic Gamble Behind Hosting the Olympics and the World Cup? Find out the surname, the name of the author of the book and a list of all author's works by series.

Circus Maximus: The Economic Gamble Behind Hosting the Olympics and the World Cup — read online for free the complete book (whole text) full work

Below is the text of the book, divided by pages. System saving the place of the last page read, allows you to conveniently read the book "Circus Maximus: The Economic Gamble Behind Hosting the Olympics and the World Cup" online for free, without having to search again every time where you left off. Put a bookmark, and you can go to the page where you finished reading at any time.

Light

Font size:

Reset

Interval:

Bookmark:

Make

How did both the Olympics and the World Cup evolve from modest sporting events to exhibits of excess? Andrew Zimbalist traces the pathfrom the first modern Olympics in 1896 and the first World Cup in 1930to today's spectacles.

Circus Maximus combines historical narrative with a straightforward analysis of the economic tensions behind recent Olympic and World Cup gamesfrom Barcelona to Sochi, Rio de Janeiro to Beijing, and from South Africa to Brazil. With worldwide competition and only one winner, the battle among prospective hosts is fierce. Bids have become more and more extravagant, and the opportunity for corruption is omnipresent.

Today, lingering allegations of corruption tarnish the 2018 Russia and 2022 Qatar World Cups. Meanwhile, cities around the globe are vying for the privilege of hosting the 2024 Summer Olympics. Circus Maximus is an eye-opening account for sports fans as well as citizens and leaders. Andrew Zimbalist shows what works for host cities and countries and points the way to reform for the IOC and FIFA bid processes.

ANDREW ZIMBALIST is the Robert A Woods Professor of Economics at Smith - photo 1

ANDREW ZIMBALIST is the Robert A. Woods Professor of Economics at Smith College. A noted sports economist and industry consultant, he is a frequent commentator on broadcast media. Among many other books, he is the author of three Brookings Institution Press titles: Sports, Jobs, and Taxes: The Economic Impact of Sports Teams and Stadiums (1997); May the Best Team Win: Baseball Economics and Public Policy (2003); and National Pastime: How Americans Play Baseball and the Rest of the World Plays Soccer (2005).

CIRCUS
MAXIMUS

The Economic Gamble Behind Hosting the Olympics and the World Cup

ANDREW ZIMBALIST

BROOKINGS INSTITUTION PRESS

Washington, D.C.

Copyright 2015

THE BROOKINGS INSTITUTION

1775 Massachusetts Avenue, N.W., Washington, D.C. 20036

www.brookings.edu

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means without permission in writing from the Brookings Institution Press.

The Brookings Institution is a private nonprofit organization devoted to research, education, and publication on important issues of domestic and foreign policy. Its principal purpose is to bring the highest quality independent research and analysis to bear on current and emerging policy problems. Interpretations or conclusions in Brookings publications should be understood to be solely those of the authors.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication data Zimbalist, Andrew S.

Circus maximus : the economic gamble behind hosting the Olympics and the World Cup / Andrew Zimbalist.

pages cm

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 978-0-8157-2651-7 (hardcover : alk. paper) 1. Hosting of sporting eventsEconomic aspects. 2. OlympicsEconomic aspects. 3. SoccerEconomic aspects. I. Title.

GV721.Z56 2015

796.48dc232014038606

9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Printed on acid-free paper Typeset in Sabon and Gotham Narrow Composition by Cynthia Stock
Silver Spring, Maryland

To the memory of Ellie Abend (19242014), my loving mother-in-law and intrepid copy editor

Contents
Preface

When I received a call from Gerry Schoenfeld, chairman of the Shubert Organization, Broadway's oldest show producer, in 2003, I had been working in the field of sports economics for over a decade. Some of my work had explored the economic impact of sports teams on cities. Independent scholarly investigation was virtually unanimous: stadiums and teams could not be expected to have a positive impact on a city's employment or output. Part of this conclusion rested on the fact that most of the money fans spent at an arena or stadium was leisure budget money that they would not spend at other entertainment venues within the city. Hence, spectator sport spending substituted for spending elsewhere in the local economy.

It seemed plausible that mega-sporting events (such as the Olympics, World Cup, or Super Bowl) would have a more positive impact. After all, a large share of the attendees came from out of the area or out of the country. They must be bringing new money, rather than recycled money, to town. Moreover, cities and countries were clamoring to host these events.

As it turns out, the substitution effect operates in a different way with mega-events, but it is still operative. Other factors as well conspire to render mega-events a dubious instrument to promote the local economyexcept in special cases, with certain preconditions, and with very effective planning and implementation.

I wasn't fully aware of the lay of the mega-event land when Gerry Schoenfeld called in 2003. I did know that it was two years after the events of September 11, 2001, and that New York City had an urge to rebuild. Following the leadership of Dan Doctoroff, the city's deputy mayor for economic development under Mayor Michael Bloomberg, and with the support of the city's major construction companies and unions, a committee had already formed to bid for the right to host the 2012 Summer Olympic Games.

Schoenfeld and the Shubert Organization didn't like the Olympic plan. In part, they thought it was a waste of the city's thin financial resources and not the most rational way to use its scarce land, but in larger part they were concerned with the impact that hosting the games would have on Broadway. The keystone of the city's plan was a new Olympic stadium, to be built on land bounded by 31st and 33rd Streets and 10th and 11th Avenues. This six-square-block area houses the open train yards for the Long Island Railroad. Building an Olympic stadium on top of these yards would have first required putting a concrete slab over the yards. This six-square-block concrete slab alone would have cost an estimated $400 million (the construction of the stadium itself would have been an additional half billion dollars or more). The stadium would have had heavy use for the seventeen days of the games, and then, after some costly refitting renovations, it would have served as the home field for the NFL's New York Jets. The Jets would have played ten home games there each year (including two exhibition games). There may also have been a few concerts and perhaps a college football game, but it is not likely that the stadium would have been in use more than fifteen days a year. The slab and the stadium would have been paid for by the taxpayers.

I may not have fully understood mega-event economics at the time, but it was obvious to me that once a concrete slab covered six square blocks on the west side of mid-Manhattan overlooking the Hudson River, it would be one of the most valuable pieces of real estate in the country, if not the world. Using it for fewer than 5 percent of the days of the year made no sense whatsoever.

And it made even less sense to the Shubert Organization. The stadium would have been a few blocks away from Broadway's theaters. The Jets play most of their home games on Sunday afternoonsthat's major traffic jamming the streets for Sunday matinees. A few evening contests wouldn't help either. If public funds were to be employed to spiff up mid-Manhattan entertainment options, the Shubert Organization wanted to ask, how about some money to help maintain and renovate Manhattan's most venerable entertainment, the theaters of Broadway?

Schoenfeld wanted me to do some economic analysis, some writing, and some public speaking. I gave myself a crash course in Olympic economics and decided that Dan Doctoroff was pushing an unrealistic plan. Fortunately for New York City, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) agreed. In 2005 the IOC announced its choice of London to host the 2012 Summer Games.

Next page
Light

Font size:

Reset

Interval:

Bookmark:

Make

Similar books «Circus Maximus: The Economic Gamble Behind Hosting the Olympics and the World Cup»

Look at similar books to Circus Maximus: The Economic Gamble Behind Hosting the Olympics and the World Cup. We have selected literature similar in name and meaning in the hope of providing readers with more options to find new, interesting, not yet read works.


Reviews about «Circus Maximus: The Economic Gamble Behind Hosting the Olympics and the World Cup»

Discussion, reviews of the book Circus Maximus: The Economic Gamble Behind Hosting the Olympics and the World Cup and just readers' own opinions. Leave your comments, write what you think about the work, its meaning or the main characters. Specify what exactly you liked and what you didn't like, and why you think so.