Sochi 2014
It is surely come down the pike fast it seems. London 2012 feels like it ended 6 months ago as opposed to almost a year ago. Time flies when your having fun right.
As i write this note, I can tell you that from what I have heard from athletes that have been there that the actual facilities that will be the site of the upcoming Winter Games is tremendous. What we dont know is whether everything else that makes up a Winter Games will be to the standard that the rest of the world is used to.
The amount of money that has been spent reportedly right now is more then $16 billion bucks more then that of Beijing. Honestly, this is crazy. The Winter Games has 1/3 the amount of athletes and if you think about the actual sport disciplines of the Winter Olympics vs that of the Summer Olympics is 7 vs 23.
What does this mean really?
It means that unless things really change fast that the Games will be extremely expensive for the average Olympic fan to go to more then any other in recent memory, hotels are gouging like there is no tomorrow, food and other services that you would see in a city like Vancouver, Torino or Salt Lake City will in some cases be 5x-10x the normal cost because everyone is going to be looking to get some of their money back.
I am excited about the competition, but not about the cost of going there for not only myself, but really for the parents of these athletes that work their entire life for their one moment in time to shine and for the privilege to see their sons and daughters live, they may have to mortgage their house.
The International Olympic Committee wants to have the Games in many places around the Globe which I understand. It just can't be in 8 countries on a rotating basis. At the same time, the economics of the Games has to be thought about for not only the host country, but also for those who attend. I am not against a free economy nor am I against people making a profit for something that their community will have made sacrifices getting ready for 7-8 years before, but at some point the price will be too much for everyone.