Carmel Dilshad, Henry Bushnell, Henry discussed on What Next | Daily News and Analysis
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Essentially what the international olympic may is. They forced tokyo. They forced their host cities to spend billions of dollars to build infrastructure. And prepare for these games and then the ioc takes most of the revenue from them. You say forest but the host cities vie for the honor of hosting the games right but when you say that out loud it sounds like there are a bunch of chumps getting more and more unpopular to bid for the olympics. It is been the reason is very much. Intangible it's the international prestige that you get from hosting the olympics. And that's why you see. A lot of countries like china for example and russia wanting to host the games but more and more people are realizing that it is a terrible economic decision. Does the olympics. I mean you've said that. Hold cities hostage. It's this extremely one sided contract. They signed with every host city. Who wins wins the right the quote unquote right. To host. The games it gives most of the revenue. Ioc and heaps all of the risk which we're seeing come to the surface now onto the host city. The was the only one with the right to cancel these games to make any sort of changes to the plan to the host contract whereas if tokyo tried to get out of this they would be on the hook for billions of dollars in damages. They would have to cover the legally if the were to be sued by broadcasters sponsors for not delivering on on their deals yes so let me just see if i understand this correctly so the international olympic committee has all of the deci decision making authority here about whether the games take place but if they cancelled the games or the games went for whatever the only people who have the risk the the monetary exposure is the host country yes the the host country and the organizing committee have to indemnify the basically always and they have to waive all sorts of legal protections when they sign this contract which they signed way back in two thousand thirteen so yes the ifc ifc prophets and host cities barrel the risk. You know the international olympic committee has said the reason. We're doing this for the athletes. do you think that's fair to some extent. But it's it's good pr to say they're doing it for the athletes. It's obviously not good. Pr to say they're doing it for themselves. And for money and for the future of the olympic movement. The answer is that they're probably doing it for both of those things. And i think there are people at the ifc who generally do have the athletes best interests in mind but there are a lot of other cases where the irs has shown that it is ioc first athletes second. When is the time when they've kind of left. The athletes behind the the basic economic structure of the olympics where athletes don't get that much money for competing in the olympics and aren't allowed to promote their own sponsors at the olympics they have to promote ioc sponsors which the ioc gets a lot of money for there are rules that prohibit freedom of speech at the olympics that prohibit protests than peaceful demonstrations. They're all sorts of rules. Where the. I ac- assumes that the olympics are so attractive that ifc forces them to conform to what the ifc wants. I wonder if you've talked to any athletes who may be feeling this kind of internal division. I mean they're not gonna get the broadcast revenue from the olympics. But this is kind of pinnacle achievement. If you are someone who's a competitor you want to go and you want to prove yourself. Are there any stories of athletes that stand out to you who are trying to make this decision about what they do here now the vast majority of them do want to compete for all the reasons you just mentioned and it also that if you think about three years and eleven months in between olympic games if you put that too if you if you if you outright cancel these olympics and make it seven years eleven months in between olympics. That's the span of a lot of olympians entire careers. That's their window to to have this chance to accomplish. A lifelong dream. Never mind money or anything like that. People just their dreams and they put so much time and energy and there is that just that tension within within their minds of the pandemic versus their own dreams. I wonder if you think whatever happens with. This olympics is gonna trickle down to future olympics. And how like i wonder if other potential host cities are watching and wondering whether an olympics investment actually makes sense or whether they need to be thinking about their contract with a little bit differently negotiating. A little bit harder. I think that's absolutely. I think it's a great call. And that's absolutely what's going to happen and it was already getting increasingly unpopular to bid for the picks and that's why for example. Beijing is going to host the winter games in eight months fourteen years after hosting summer games in two thousand eight. The reason for is nobody else wanted to host the twenty twenty two winter olympics. It came down to beijing and a city in kazakhstan The has to some extent acknowledged this and realize that they are starting to make more concessions to host cities and just try to make hosting the olympics more viable. But it's still very one sided. And i think this whole saga is setting off alarm bells in a lot of people's minds who might potentially bid for future olympics. That you know there's a lot more downside here than we realize and maybe there's less upside than we realize as well and maybe this isn't something we should do. Henry's been asking people if they think the tokyo olympics will go on. He says most folks give ninety percent chance. The games are going to happen when i asked how many of those people think the games should happen. I think they should happen. You wanna go the olympics. I would want to go to the pex. I'd be okay going to the olympics henry. Bushnell thank you so much for joining me. Appreciate it mary. Henry bushnell is a features writer for yahoo sports. And that's show. What next is produced by davis land. Carmel dilshad daniel hewitt elena schwartz and mary. Wilson are feeless leaders. Allison benedict unleashing. Montgomery and mary harris. You can go. Track me down on twitter about mary's desk. I hope you had a great holiday weekend. If you're celebrating. I'll talk to you tomorrow..