Hosting cities of international sporting events, commonly known as Olympics, garner lots of popularity every 5 years. These are events focused towards showcasing the talents across the world. However, it is quite debatable whether it is rightful for these nations to invest significant resources on conducting these or not. I hold the viewpoint, that these events are blown way out of proportion, and do not require such largescale expenditures and this essay will discuss the reasons why it is unnecessary.
International sporting event provides great opportunities for countries to share their local talents with the world. It is an important event, as it encourages the non-participating athletes and the entire world to encounter the talents and techniques, these professionals hold. Hosting such events, requires building large arenas to accommodate these activities. It benefits the economy of the nation, as a lot of people travel to experience this congregation hence increasing the revenue generated from tourism. These countries also receive a lot of media coverage, along with an increase demand for skilled labor. The food and hotel industry also experiences a spike in revenues due to the increased demand.
However, the financial advantages have a shelf-life, and they plummet after the event end. Many of these countries have to spend significant financial resources to build the sporting arenas. The capital is also utilized towards upgrading existing facilities to accommodate an additional population of tourists traveling. They often utilize the capital, primarily meant to be used for country’s necessary advancements, since no country keeps a separate budget for such sporting events. It takes countries years to recover from the financial loss, and Paris is one such example. Paris was known to overspend the original estimates by billions of euros, causing national debt, and adverse ramifications for its economy.
In addition to the financial debt, majority of the labor employed during these sporting events is also left unemployed after the commencement of the event. Number of jobs lost are more than tens of thousands leaving thousand facilities with no income to live off for months. The facilities built for the purpose of these events are also left unused, as they serve no other purpose, causing a major landmass to be left unutilized. Qatar serves as another painful example. It hosted the International Olympics of 2024, and while it was refreshing to see a Middle-East country host a large-scale popular event, the outcomes to the economy were drastic to say the least. Thousands of unemployed labor, excessive expense used towards construction of the sporting site and modification of existing ones, and an immediate reduction in the tourism are few of the namely disadvantages. These losses will require many more years to recover from, causing the locals to suffer from inflated prices on everything, besides unemployment.
To conclude, while the international sporting events are a great way to enhance tourism for the hosting cities, it is arguably unnecessary as it causes enormous economic loss, which could be avoided if the countries who already have such establishments could host these events. It not only impacts the economy, but also the people of those nations, causing them to face inflation, loss of employment, and land.