Last week, at the opening rite of the International Olympic Committee’s consultation in Mumbai, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said India “looked forward to hosting” the 2036 Olympics. He spoke at length about India’s ability to host primary events, and in particular discussed the recent circular of the G20 meetings, held in 60 cities across the country over the past year.
There is no denying India’s logistical capabilities, adding in the sporting field – as evidenced by the smooth performance of the Indian Premier League every year, and even the option to convert entire countries at the last minute, as happened in 2009, when the Tournament held in India, South Africa.
But while the G20, IPL, and even the current Cricket World Cup are vast and complex operations, the Olympics are a beast on a completely different scale: from security to transportation, from people to infrastructure, and above all, control, accountability, and timing. with a large number of people and a tough organization (the IOC).
Here’s a look at some of the challenging situations posed by the Olympic Games:
The scale of the Olympic Games is unimaginably greater than that of any sporting event on the planet. The Tokyo Olympics saw the participation of more than 11,000 athletes in 42 venues across Japan. They also welcomed approximately 80,000 foreign officials, aid personnel, and bloodhounds (this number is expected to increase). that is accumulating with the arrival of new sports). And we didn’t even touch the fans, who were absent from the COVID-19 that hit Japan. And then the Paralympic Games, which continue without delay: 4,403 more athletes, plus officials and bloodhounds.
While Tokyo’s hotel occupancy rate (which was still rising by 6. 4% before the pandemic hit) and public transportation have not been affected due to pandemic-enforced absences, they have been affected elsewhere. Rio de Janeiro, for example, added 31,960 rooms (16. 8%). increasing over the existing volume) ahead of the 2016 Games. . . and that’s after a preparation for the 2014 FIFA World Cup has already been prepared. This will then be supplemented through AirBnB’s facilities.
Paris, host of the upcoming Olympics, has one of the largest accommodation volumes in the world (~160,000 hotel rooms already available), but also plans to add more rooms (a minimum of 5,000). between 600,000 and 800,000 Olympic visitors a day in its public maritime transport system. “It’s like being permanently at rush hour,” said the French transport minister. A new metro line was opened from the city’s second airport (Orly) to an Olympic center; and an explicit exercise service is expected to commence from the main airport (Charles de Gaulle). They expect more exercises and shuttles to take place.
The numbers may not inspire India, but it will want to build a lot to cope with such a specific surge. For context, New Delhi’s hotel capacity is just under 15,000 rooms; load Noida and Gurugram and that’s still only about 23,000 rooms.
Ahmedabad lately has 4,350 rooms and has collapsed under the weight of hosting a cricket match between India and Pakistan at the ongoing World Cup. India vs Pakistan in cricket may be just one of many high-profile competitions at the Games.
Of course, this challenge can be solved by creating more services in the host city, but it raises a primary question (which Rio continues to ask): who will use them once the Games are over?
The answer to this question largely depends on where India wants to host the Games. There are sports facilities in major cities that, with many renovations, could be adapted to your wishes (and we have enough time to do all this). The Olympic Games, however, are in themselves a vast sporting universe. This includes sports that require ultra-specialized infrastructure and will have to adhere to very strict guidelines.
This means that the host wants at least 40 other sports facilities (each with its own needs, such as open water, a hard-ground gym, or fast ramps and pipes). And building them from scratch is not only incredibly expensive, but it also has to meet some very important criteria of venue variety: any new stadium that is built would require a justification of the long-term legacy and meeting the wishes of the local population.
Structures that already exist in the country can be used (such as at the 2024 Games, Nice will host the organisation of rugby and the organisation of football in Marseille), but those in India would need a primary renovation. For example, the only track cycling velodrome (12 medal-winning events) in India is a dilapidated and underused facility in New Delhi. Hosting the Games, for example in Ahmedabad, with track cycling in New Delhi may be just one option, but this provides a logistical solution. challenge.
In addition to those special amenities, you want state-of-the-art accommodations in the Games Village, security facilities, and other amenities — and everything has to run like clockwork.
And no, all of this doesn’t pay for itself.
The Tokyo Olympics cost $13 billion (Rs >1 lakh crore), 130 cents more than estimates published when Tokyo won the bid in 2013. 62% of this cost is covered by the Tokyo government or the Japanese government.
Of course, these prices have been inflated due to the COVID-19 pandemic, but the fact is that this is a primary monetary investment. According to the LA Times, the cost of Paris 2024 has risen from €6. 8 billion (~Rs 60 billion) to €8. 5 billion (~Rs 76 billion), with further increases expected. The cost of Los Angeles 2028 is now estimated at $6. 9 billion (~60 billion rupees), including security and public shipping costs.
It also affects tourism in general if you choose a city that is already a popular destination. For example, tourism fell by 5% in London (in 2012) and 20% in Beijing (2008).
There is an explanation for why many urban referendums have forced cities such as Rome, Hamburg, Boston and Bern to pull out of the race to host the Olympics at other times. Ticket sales can’t make up for much, and corporate sponsors have still only covered a percentage portion of the corresponding prices. The organization of the Games is a loss-making undertaking from a purely monetary point of view. Just ask Greece.
Again, let’s say the host city is Ahmedabad. Si the city’s hotel and accommodation infrastructure is multiplied by five (a very modest estimate), what will happen to the total after the hustle and bustle of the Games?Does supply maintain occupancy volumes? For example, additional rooms created in Rio have been a major challenge for the city’s hospitality industry.
It’s just the supporting infrastructure. What happens to athletes?In Beijing, several smaller stadiums built especially for the 2008 Games are abandoned, while the Beijing National Stadium (the Bird’s Nest) is now a tourist attraction hosting a variety of occasions, from exhibitions and concerts to occasional pre-season friendly events. Together. football match. In Brazil, even the football stadiums built for the 2014 World Cup have fallen into disuse and disrepair.
Although the IOC is now focusing on venues with sustainable infrastructure, not all of it will be used to fill the city’s capacity. One solution may be to simply designate the host city as the national capital of gambling for all primary gaming events. But this comes with a big threat (empty stands if the city’s gaming culture is strong enough/the fact that not all tournaments will get a lot of media coverage) and a big problem (keeping the most productive games apart from everyone else in this vast nation).
It is a combination of the tangible and the intangible. How many homeless people will there be in the seats of those stadiums?The Indian Women’s League football tournament has struggled to reach double-digit attendance figures for a month in Ahmedabad, and even the Cricket World Cup is visibly struggling to attract spectators to non-Indian matches across the country.
Seeing the stands empty on opening day in Ahmedabad was painful: two of the most productive representatives of this sport that India loves more than any other faced off on the biggest stage, and yet the Narendra Modi Stadium was at 35% capacity. The match between Afghanistan and Bangladesh attracted 9,195 more people (two neighbours from India!), the match between England and Bangladesh 12,478 more people: both were held in Dharamshala, where the stadium capacity is 23,000 more people.
This is directly due to a sports culture that, although it has been significantly replaced in the last fifteen years, is still too focused on television. The ICC World Cup made it clear that there is still a long way to go. At the Olympics, although there will be foreign spectators, domestic spectators make up the bulk of the crowd. Will it take place here?
Olympic good luck is a key criterion for a bid, but it would be embarrassing to say the least if the host country were knocked out of the top spot in top competitions. At Tokyo 2020, India won seven medals. Throughout its history, India has won 35 Olympic medals, as many as Michael Phelps and Usain Bolt combined.
By the time Japan submitted its bid for Tokyo 2020, it had won 38 medals at the Olympics. Rio 2016 follows Brazil’s 17 wins at Beijing 2008.
After the 1970s, the lowest score a winning country had at the time of bid is 8, which Greece won in 1996 (4 of them gold medals). But they finished the Sydney 2000 Games with thirteen medals (4 gold, again) and their 2004 Games on home soil with 16 medals (6 gold). This shows that targeted improvements are possible; However, Greece also warns of a sharp decline: in 2008 it won three medals (0 gold), in 2012 two (0 W), before rising to six in 2016 (3 gold).
There’s still time to improve, there’s also a lot of ground to make up.
Basic infrastructure and other functions will need to be tested at some point before the Olympic Games take place. It may just be the National Games, held in Gujarat last year; however, the previous one had taken place seven years earlier in Kerala. This highlights the sporadic nature of the holding of the national games; a facet that wants to be especially improved.
Rio hosted the FIFA World Cup in 2014 (on a significantly larger scale than the cricket version), and the city saw Argentina relegated there for the final. Rio and Paris also have a rich sports culture, with constant attendance at stadiums for sporting occasions. and tournaments held throughout the year in other sports.
Modi, in his speech to the IOC, commented that India would be “looking forward” to the 2030 Youth Olympic Games, and that they could simply be a clever dress rehearsal. It would be less expensive than holding a CWG or Asiad before the Olympics.
The most important thing not to forget at an international event of this magnitude is that others matter. Athletes matter. Support staff is vital. Fans matter. Journalists matter. Scenarios matter for public servants and staff. It may seem strange to have to mention this, but our sports culture tends to take all those other people for granted. That’s why the stadiums are dirty, difficult to access, lack fundamental facilities, which makes sports held in India a nightmare for enthusiasts, and not much greater for itinerant journalists. And the ticketing process will have to begin several months before the start of the Games.
At the Olympic Games, it will be provided to each and every country on the planet (there are more National Olympic Committees identified through the IOC (206) than countries in the United Nations (193)) and an Olympic accreditation card is similar to a diplomatic act. Passport, which provides instant access to the host country. In this scenario, there is no room for delays or other visa issues for enthusiasts or journalists. Everyone will be treated equally.
There is another thing we need to keep in mind at the Olympic and Paralympic Games: making the entire infrastructure suitable for special needs. It’s fair to say that very few of our public spaces in India today meet those requirements; You’ll have to live up to it.
At its consultation in Mumbai, the IOC raised the factor of the lack of a director general of the Indian Olympic Association; By their standards, the current interim CEO Kalyan Chaubey continues in this position and at the same time holds the presidency of a sports federation (the AIFF). This is just the tip of the iceberg of sports governance; Things get a lot more confusing after that. where state and district agencies do the most of the work.
Our national federations have at times been a source of embarrassment – take for example the Indian Wrestling Federation – and the country cannot be at the highest level of all. What he needs, from day one, is a professional technique – whatever we have. It’s rarely noticed when it comes to hosting sports tournaments (with one exception, IPL is still properly managed).
There are still huge messes to be resolved: from small aspects such as anti-doping control to the actual conduct of tournaments (at the National Paralympic Games, a few years ago, one occasion took place under the headlights of a car). key and unglamorous things that we and the right guy will require a voluntary effort from everyone in the sports pyramid.
Any such giant offer carries with it a type of expense that requires ongoing scrutiny and monitoring, and this type of accountability will have to be automatic, given the monetary burden borne by the taxpayer.
But what also deserves to be looked at closely is the way in which the formula of the games is established. A bet on success will guarantee one thing for athletes: funnel more money and more for elite athletes (you can’t host a Games and finish 48th in the rankings), but what about the rest?What about sustainable game formulas that allow athletes to compete at their most productively across the country?To establish the kind of accountability that ensures this is the greatest legacy, that the organization of the Games simply disappears.
It is vital to note that in terms of responsibility and accountability, hosting the Olympic Games is different than hosting the G20 or even the ICC World Cup. The IOC has transparent regulations on sustainability, spending, criteria and protocols and will require and expect grades. of scrutiny not only by Indian sports officials but also, ultimately, by the government of the day.
If the Indian sports formula manages to emerge unscathed from all this, it could have a long-term positive effect on the organization of the Olympic Games.