In an all-out publicity assault on the International Olympic Committee (IOC), the First Lady Michelle Obama traveled to Copenhagen with a crew in tow in order to try to secure Chicago as the site for the 2016 Olympics. The President himself was soon to follow, to try and seal the deal. But was the trip it worth the president’s time?
Economic Impacts of Olympics
There have been numerous economic impact studies about the positive effects that hosting an Olympics, or major sporting events for that matter, have on an economy. But it is the post studies that may reveal the true gains or losses in hosting such an event. Jeffrey G. Owen with the Department of Economics at Indiana State University wrote an article on the subject titled Estimating the Cost and Benefit of Hosting Olympic Games: What Can Beijing Expect from Its 2008 Games?
In the article Owen refers to several studies. One of which is Phillip Porter’s 1999 study Mega-Sports Events as Municipal Investments: A Critique of Impact Analysis. That study concludes “no measurable impact on spending associated with the event. The projected spending and spillover benefits of regional impact models never materialize.”