Many people have been negatively affected by the worldwide recession that is currently ongoing. London has already expressed concern about their 2012 budget. The government of Rio is also concerned about their ability to pay for an Olympics, even though it is still six years away. This video discusses their concerns:

In 1948, London hosted what would be known as the “austerity Olympics”. The world was just emerging from world war. Simon Jenkins of the UK Guardian argued for a return to the austerity Olympics… way back in 2008. Things have not improved since.

For London, many of the cogs are already in place. But it’s not too late for Rio to host their own austerity games. There are some things that they have to do… they need to make sure that Rio is safe when the world arrives there. They need to have places for the athletes to compete. Even some of the infrastructure needs to be built. However, in tough times, do we really need to try to best the 2008 Beijing Olympics? There are ways to cut costs, and perhaps Brazil should look into that. They have hosted major soccer events in the past, that can be a base for their austerity Olympics. If London can host a pared-down games after coming out of war (where their city was bombed), then Rio can offer a pared-down version of the games.

In 2018 and 2020, it is possible that the games will be awarded to the countries that are performing the best financially. Hopefully we will be pulling out of the economic doldrums by then, but much of the work to build the games will have to come several years before the games are held. Do we really need to spend that much on the Olympic games anyway?

Until the world economy turns around, perhaps we should keep things simple.

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