Olympic Fail.

[Derec]

Unfortunately, Baku, Azerbaijan was apparently not considered a serious contender.

They did a good job with their street F1 circuit.

 

[nightwyrm]

I think they did. They were able to organize the games for a fraction of Beijing or Sochi (ridiculous cost for Winter Games btw) and the infrastructure and facilities built can be used by the citizens on an ongoing basis.

Vancouver did surprisingly well.

 

[Tom Sawyer]

Now, residents are dumping their trash beside the Olympic venues. That's somewhat disrespectful.

http://globalnews.ca/news/2796582/body-parts-wash-up-on-rio-beach-near-olympic-beach-volleyball-venue/

 

[bleubird]

http://www.latimes.com/sports/la-sp...found-near-olympics-1467297917-htmlstory.html
No comment needed.

 

[Draconis]

We did OK with the 2012 games in London. And the flame went right past our house!

 

[bleubird]

http://www.cnn.com/2016/07/05/sport/rio-olympics-2016-security/index.html
I am sure you all have seen this.Right.

 

[Jimmy Higgins]

We need to stop holding these events in venues where the venues don't exist yet. Need to build one or two places, okay. Need to build an entire fleet of buildings and stadiums? You clearly don't have the infrastructure needed.

 

[ronburgundy]

If his tax dollars weren't paying for it, that would be a legitimate rebuttal. Just like people who don't like wars had no obligation to sit back and shut up when their money was used to bomb Iraq, people who think that the Olympics are a waste of their cash have a stake and a valid voice about it, no matter if they watch or not. He's being forced into participation even if he ignores it.

My tax dollars go to shit I don't want and that I get no enjoyment from. Oh well. That's the way it is.

That isn't the way it is. That is the way people too often allow it to be. Taxpayers could and more often should have a direct say in how their money is spent. With something very specific and very costly like the Olympics, any city should have a direct vote to determine whether it supports putting forth a bid.

In the U.S. the Olympics cost each taxpayer such an insignificant amount,

That isn't true. The cost is not simply spread evenly over all tax payers. Residents of the host city foot most of the bill, their public lands are grabbed and used for private profit, they suffer loss of time and money from years of traffic headaches, road closures, public transit reroutes, etc..

that the amount of entertainment available for the expenditure is a tremendous value.

To the majority of locals, it is not a value at all but a total ripoff scam. Not to mention, only about 5% of the actual competition is even televised, because their is not enough public interest (aka "value") in the majority of the "sports", or even in the early rounds of the most popular sports.

And it's entertainment for the entire world.

Great. Then let the world pay for it. Make all coverage in all countries pay per view with the $ going directly to pay for the costs, and an OEC fund that is used to pay the bill up front. Not a single tax dollar, especially from local taxes, should be spent. We'll see how much the world truly values the games when each person has to actually pay their fair share to watch them.

Boston citizens wisely shut down their city's efforts to host. Chicagoans would have (90% opposed using any local tax dollars for it) except their corrupt mayor at the time (who ought to be in prison) had no regard for the public welfare. Happily, Chicago lost the bid because they apparently didn't give enough bribes.

The last Summer Games in the US, 1996, cost the taxpayers of Atlanta $2,000,000,000, despite the Fed kicking in $600,000,000.
Plus, even when the facilities get used for other purposes (which rare and almost never covers the cost of building and maintaining), the profits of those uses wind up mostly in private hands while the public loses parks and public lands on which these building were built.