It probably shouldn’t be a surprise that the most unwieldy and corrupt organizations in the world take the longest to do the most obvious thing. And yet it still is. Even weeks after it became clear it was the move, the IOC Tuesday finally announced that it would delay the Olympics in Tokyo this summer to 2021. The IOC certainly hovers around the throne of being the most corrupt organization in the sports, and in the team photo for world-conquest in that category.
It’s also a surprise when an organization like the IOC, one that would nuke every animal shelter in the Western Hemisphere for eight dollars, actually does the right thing. There was simply no way the Games could have been held this summer for myriad reasons.
Athletes have been unable to train normally during this pandemic, not to mention their various travel restrictions, as well as their own reservations or fears about leaving their homes, much less to join a mass collection of people at this point in history.
Ditto the restrictions and fears of fans traveling to Tokyo, and the crush that would provide on the country’s measures to combat coronavirus and its overall health system. Some countries, such as Canada, had already refused to send their athletes to the Games had they gone on as scheduled.
You can bet, however, that the IOC didn’t come to this decision before exhausting every possible avenue and theoretical tactic to get the Games off as scheduled. Global health be damned.
And there’s reason for that, as this from Awful Announcing points out.
This isn’t as huge of a deal as it might seem, for the smaller reason that the IOC will get their money in 2021 when the Tokyo Games do take place, if they take place. Still, you have to marvel that the IOC will take any measure possible to make sure its coiffeurs are always overflowing, and yet their TV deals only pay up two weeks every two years. Makes you think they have more than enough money otherwise, doesn’t it?
The far bigger reason It’s also not a big deal because of the following:
- In Montreal ’76, taxpayers didn’t pay off the cost of those Games until 2006.
- Athens’ $7 billion in debt or more from hosting the 2004 Games, perhaps helping to cause Greece’s financial collapse.
- Beijing’s $423 million “Bird’s Nest” stadium now empty with an $11 million upkeep per year, but turned a profit because of authoritarian regime, we’re told.
- The Sochi Winter Games cost $51 billion, the most expensive ever, which tends to happen when you hold them at a warm-weather resort. It also allowed a dictator like Vladimir Putin an even deeper stronghold on a country, all in service to his ego.
- Rio fell into billions of dollars of debt after a Games that cost $13.2 billion, forcing late or no payments to nurses, teachers, and pensions. Held in the midst of a Brazilian recession, the effects of which led Brazil to elect one of the few evil, dunderheaded goblins as president, someone in the same neighborhood as Donald Trump.
- London’s $14 billion Games somehow didn’t net London a profit, but did provide West Ham a stadium all their fans hate. This is about as well as anyone’s done.
Of course, the IOC profited billions from these games themselves, as they don’t provide one cent into the cost of setting them up. Perhaps the IOC will lose some sponsorship money, but let’s not burn through too many tissues crying over its plight as it certainly will have enough to make it to the postponed Games. As for everyone else? That’s yet to be seen.
Can we do FIFA next?
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