Tokyo recently won the right to host the 2020 Summer Olympic Games, and the start of the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia is just a few months away.
As the Olympics have made headlines in recent weeks, Public Policy Professor John Rennie Short has been in the news for his proposal that the Summer Olympics should be held at a permanent site every four years. He was recently interviewed by Radio New Zealand on its award-winning program “This Way Up” about the idea.
“Moving it every four years seems to be incredibly expensive and socially disruptive when why don’t we host it in one site? There’s obviously lots of cost at the beginning, but the costs are evened out,” he said.
Short described how establishing a permanent site would create a “global place” where events could be held beyond the Olympics such as conferences, meetings and concerts where people from all around the world, not just athletes, could come.
He also discussed the idea of growing material interest in the Olympics and how the games keep getting larger each year.
“Every city has a major displacement, major cost, and the real driving force for permanently moving the Olympic Games, it comes from developers who actually cash in big time if they can successfully get land cheap and sell it more expensive,” Short said.
You can listen to the full, 12-minute interview on Radio New Zealand here.
John Rennie Short was also recently interviewed by KCBS News Radio in San Francisco about his proposal. You can find more information on that here.
Tags: CAHSS, PublicPolicy
