Adumbration

The news today has two reports in seattlepi.com on the subject of prospects for an olympic bid from Seattle for the 2024 Summer games: one overview and another with more background.  

A prior post may presage indication of my skepticism of spending from the public purse on sports entertainment.  Here are a few highlights from the recent story that further explain my position:

Evidently, Seattle Mayor Mike McGinn has bestowed responsibility for investigating this deal on the Seattle Sports Commission, a non-profit organization dedicated to promoting sports in the Seattle area and hardly a neutral party.

[SCC executive director Ralph] Morton said of Seattle’s involvement. “It will ultimately be looked at like a business decision — what is affordable and what is feasible. " 

While I have said a lot of good about business, I am not pro-business but pro-markets.  Markets mean people deciding for themselves about what they will support in their community.  The people who own businesses make their decisions on the basis of profit and loss; affordability and feasibility is based on whether they can produce something that people actually want enough to pay more than it costs to make the product or provide the service.  The city of Seattle has no way to measure those factors, and can only make such decisions on the basis of who squawks loudest in Council meetings.

In contrast, businesses that are able to accommodate consumer demands are successful, but just because it is a business does not mean it should be supported, and certainly not from the public purse.  Which brings me to the next point:

Hosting the Olympics is an extraordinarily expensive venture, often requiring billions in investment for infrastructure and sports venues. The 2010 Winter Games in Vancouver, B.C., cost an estimated $6 billion for transportation projects, venue construction, operations, promotion, security and other related expenses. The 2012 London Olympics reportedly cost as much as $15 billion. In the USOC’s letter in February, committee CEO Scott Blackmun said the operating costs alone for the 2024 Summer Games would likely end up being $3 billion, not including investment in venues or transportation.

And where is this money to come from?  Past experience indicates a combination of local, state, and federal taxes.  Given the multiple year disruption that such an event would impose on the community, for the benefit of two weeks competition, I think it is clear that not everyone in the community would think this is worth the expense when there are other ways we might spend our time and energy.  The argument to justify payment by people outside of the area, in the rest of Washington and the United State, is even more illusory, meaning that those billions coming from everyone in this country end up being spent for the benefit of a small number of people who might have the opportunity to capitalize on two weeks of huge crowds pouring into the region.

I don't expect this to be the last word on a Seattle Olympics bid.