I spent some time on the internet researching what China's spending on hosting the Olympics. Although I can't vouch for the accuracy of what I found, here it is:
a. Cost of the Olympics. Various estimates put the expected Chinese outlay for hosting the Beijing Olympics at $20-40 billion. At the low end, $23 billion was the figure first cited by BOCOG in 2002. At the high end is $40.5 billion cited by another article that said the operating budget of the Beijing Games is estimated to be around $2 billion, investment in stadiums and athlete villages $2.8 billion, and $35.67 billion will be spent to upgrade long-term infrastructure such as subway lines, airport terminals, power plants, and water treatment facilities. By way of comparison, the figure cited for putting on the Athens Games is $13 - $17 billion.
I think the difference between $20 and $40 billion has to do with exactly how much of the new infrastructure you want to count. An April, 2006 Newsweek article I read said there is $160 billion in infrastructure improvements now going on in Beijing, to transform it into THE capital of Asia and one of the handful of top cities in the world, like New York, London, and Paris. (And to use the know-how gained in prepping for the Games to revamp the rest of China later.) So, I think a big question is how much of the spending is due to the Olympics and and how much is what they would be doing anyway. ( A Wall Street Journal article said China will spend more than $400 billion through 2010 building airports, roads, water systems and infrastructure projects. Three major tabs: $40 billion for the Beijing Olympics, 3 times that of Athens's infrastructure spending, $41 billion for the Shanghai 2010 World Expo and $27 billion for Guangzhou's 2010 Asian Games.)
b. The IOC has said that there could be a profit from the Beijing Games and it would be similar to the the $224 million profit that the LA Games made in 1984. (But, again, just how you compute the profit depends on what you include on the spending side!)
c. Broadcasting fees paid to Beijing will amount to about $2 billion.
d. The opening ceremony of the Beijing Games is expected to cost about the same as the one in Athens, which was $105 million. By way of comparison, the one in Sydney cost $35 million.
e. The main stadium for the Beijing Games, called "the Bird's Nest" is estimated to cost $375 million. And that's after construction was halted because of cost overruns and the stadium redesigned to eliminate the sliding cover on the roof to cut costs.
f. Shunyi Watersports Park, where the slalom and flatwater canoeing and kayaking will be held as well as the rowing, is estimated to cost $95 million.
g. Addidas paid $80-100 million in cash and services, such as the award uniforms for the Chinese team, to win the Beijing sponsorship
h. General Electric, one of 11 elite private sector sponsors of the International Olympic Committee, has already won contracts worth $160 million from projects in China related to the 2008 Games and has a goal of winning $800 million, total, in power generation and distribution, lighting, security and water treatment. Some of the others of these elite sponsors include: the Chinese computer maker Lenovo; Coca Cola; and South Korea's Samsung Electronics. The sponsors, known as The Olympic Partners (TOP), have paid tens of millions of dollars to get prioritised usage of their products and services during the Games. They have also promised to help the IOC promote sportsmanship and the Olympic spirit. When the Games are over, GE will focus on Shanghai and the 2010 World Expo, which will generate more billions of dollars in business opportunities. However, despite these private-sector contributions, the financing of the Games remains largely state-run. The principal partners are state-owned enterprises: The Bank of China, Air China, China Mobile, China Netcom.
j. Police, taxi drivers, and many ordinary people are attending English classes financed by the Olympics committee.
k.The Beijing Municipal statistics Bureau says the Olympics will create1.8 million new jobs in Beijing. By comparison, the Sydney Olympics created 150,000 new jobs. In addition to creating
the jobs, the Bureau says the Olympics will make the service sector 70% of Beijing's economy rather than the current 60%, which it says is important because the service industry usually accounts for more than 80% of the economy of cities in developed countries. The Bureau estimates that between 2004 and 2008, $34.6 billion will have been invested and that will raise the city's gross domestic product by an average of 0.8 percentage points per year.
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
II - Chinese Spending on its Olympic Team
Beware of the financial black hole of the Olympic Games
Baizhi, Special to the Epoch Times
10/21/2004
[found at: http://www.asianresearch.org/articles/2346.html]
The Chinese athletes’ performances at the Olympic Games in Athens were magnificent, generating 32 gold medals and making China second in the sports arena. However, behind the gold medals, the Chinese sports world reveals its abnormal development. We cannot help but ask, “What else can the gold medals bring to China besides honor?”
Gold medal economics
The cost of each gold medal won in Athens can be calculated by the opportunity cost idea, which considers how much each gold medal costs while sacrificing other developments or projects in society.
According to statistics, China has spent at least 20 billion yuan (about US$2.4 billion) on the General Administration of Sport for the Greek Olympic Games alone in the past four years. If the amount of money is divided by the number of total gold medals, then the average of every gold medal costs more than 600 million yuan (US $72.5 million). This does not include the cost of constructing the athletic facilities, related software or other anonymous costs.
At present, more than 1,300 athletes in China are salaried by the country. If we take the 20 billion and divide by 1,300, this gives us 15 million yuan. That is, raising an athlete in China costs an average of 15 million yuan (US $1.8 million) a year. If we were to also include the early years of training of the athlete, the cost of a gold medal will far exceed the 15 million yuan.
Training an athlete is expensive compared to other professionals. For example, training an “outstanding” fighter aircraft pilot in China costs about 1 million yuan (US $120,000) a year. For an elementary school teacher, it is about 200,000 yuan (US $24,000). Thus, how many elementary school teachers can a gold medal trade for? How many illiterate students can be educated?
With China spending an enormous amount of money, what is the rate of obtaining a gold medal?
Judging from the economic benefit of obtaining a medal, one gets a medal from 20.63 million people in China. It is much higher than India, where one gets a silver medal from 1.3 billion people. Along with this standard, one gets a medal from 4.6 million people in Taiwan. Taiwan is much more efficient than China and it does not invest as much as China in social cost.
Financial black hole for the expense of the Olympic Games
The citizens of China are spending 20 billion yuan to buy 32 gold medals (when only considering the budget of the General Administration of Sport). But was that all? The general public did not pay only for the gold medals, but also for the "inspection" and "sightseeing" teams consisting of Chinese officials. The so-called sightseeing teams not only watched the Olympic Games in Athens, but also visited the scenery of Greece; while the inspection teams more or less “inspected” the same things as the sightseeing teams.
It is an outcry, when considering that many of the members of the two teams do not speak English, so it’s mind-boggling how the inspection team can do its job. For the so-called “cheering” team, their role is to cheer for the athletes, yet they also went on tours and shopped. The teams were divided into different classes and all of their expenses were paid for by the Chinese government.
According to a report, one city in China sent four inspection teams several times to Greece before the Athens Olympic Games. They claimed that for China to “hold the Olympic Games well,” they have to go abroad and inspect every year. According to the report, one Chinese inspection team costs an average of 170,000 yuan (US $20,500) per person for four days.
So, how many such inspection teams went to Greece and how often? The official in charge of visa in Greece was not willing to reveal the number. However, it is certain that the money spent on the inspection teams is part of "the cost of the gold medal" that was not counted.
It is also worth considering how many officials spend money in the name of the Olympic Games. And the money is paid at the cost of the Beijing Olympic Games.
Spartan training is only for the gold medal
Although China has paid an enormous price to obtain so many medals, the glamour sports atmosphere does not pervade throughout the whole country and with its people; neither does it elevate the national image.
The reason is that in order to obtain gold medals, China’s sport system has been distorted for a long time.
It is said that the schools of sports in China enroll 5-year-old children. Then they send potential candidates to the sport centers of provinces or cities to receive a Spartan training. After that, they send only the best ones to train together in the national teams, and be raised by the government.
That is, the Chinese athletes are trained to become machines to generate gold medals under the policy of “Diplomacy of Saving Face.” At present, there are more than 200,000 athletes in China. Only 1,200 can enter the national team, which only produced 32 gold medals.
However, competitions are relentless. The athletes who are “eliminated” do not receive financial support from the government. They can only make a living on their own. Usually, when these specialized athletes leave the athletic fields, they are like eagles without wings. Most of them are in poor health condition due to past sports injuries, and become a burden on society.
It was reported that the Liaoning Hercules, Cai Li, who had won 40 national and 20 Asian championships, died in poverty and poor health after he retired.
Compared to the development of sports in America and Japan, China’s format is obviously distorted. The distribution of athletes in America and Japan is represented in the form of a pyramid. Athletes on the bottom of the pyramid are made up of sports teams in the schools all over the country and not the carefully chosen child athletes, as in China. At the middle of the pyramid, the amateur athletes are supported by enterprises in society. Only at the top of the pyramid are professional athletes.
However, the athletes in China are only a small number of the total population. This kind of sport development policy is like fostering competition tools such as “racing horses” or “fighting dogs.” Essentially, it violates the spirit of sports.
The idea of the international competition for gold medals in the Olympic Games comes from the Cold War. The Spartan training that China uses was learned from Eastern European countries and the former U.S.S.R. Although China is second for the number of gold medals won at this year’s Olympic Games, it does not earn much respect from the honor.
The cost of the Beijing Olympic Games is much more
As Beijing is to hold the Olympic Games in four years, and if the Chinese government follows the format of the Athens Olympic Games, how many billion yuan will the Chinese people keep losing?
The Olympic Games this time sets a precedent. In order to hold the Olympic Games, Greece had to spend US $6 billion for many reasons. Two of the main reasons were the waste in constructing the stadium and the expense for security.
One can only imagine how much expense for security the Beijing Olympic Games has to spend as the number of Chinese citizens’ appealing in Beijing is increasing. Also, the hatred of the people whose houses were demolished without their say and who were forced to move homes is accumulating. The Asian Cup soccer tournament required 50,000 police to guard along the road.
It is stated in the Economic Observer that the Beijing Olympic Games is making an effort to “lose weight,” or cut cost. The project of the National Stadium, nicknamed "Bird Nest," is suspended. The design of the National Swimming Center, “Water Cube,” is undergoing changes. It will possibly be torn down and rebuilt. The project of the Wukesong Culture and Sports Center is also being redesigned.
Has the Chinese government carefully planned the budget? If they had carefully estimated the budget, why would they “cut cost,” “reconstruct” or “redesign” halfway through? Aren’t they wasting money?
Until now, we have not counted the money spent by the Chinese officials under the name of helping the Olympic Games.
The Chinese people should not go on indulging themselves in the fond dream of “holding the Olympic Games,” but should instead think about how much money they will have to pay for this dream. Is it worth paying so much money? And where has the money gone?
It seems glorious to have 32 gold medals. However, it should not be the reason that people lose awareness, and result in an unprecedented, huge financial black hole that China is facing.
xxxxxxxxxx
III - The medal count
[To me the implication of this story from Australia is that China is on track to win the gold medal count at the Beijing Olympics, but probably finish second to the US in the overall count. Russia may throw a wrench into that prediction, though!]
Australia slips from 4th to 5th
31 January 2007
Australia remains in the top five nations on the medal tally but our performances “dipped” in 2006 as other countries showed dramatic improvement.
On the latest statistics based on Olympic benchmark events and world rankings, Australia finished 2006 with 42 medals, 17 gold, 15 silver and 10 bronze.
With this result Australia slipped to 5th from 4th position.
Number of Medals (Gold in paretheses)
2006 2005 2004
USA 108 99 103 (36)
RUSSIA 98 81 92 (27)
CHINA 85 63 63 (32)
GERMANY 60 54 48 (13)
AUSTRALIA 42 (17) 50 49 (17)
JAPAN 39 32 37 (16)
ITALY 33 32 (10)
BRITAIN 31 30 (9)
“China and Germany are the big improvers – China with the focus of a home Games and Germany now producing the results we all expected with the unification of east and west” said AOC President, John Coates.
Japan collected six medals at the recent 2006 Women’s Judo benchmark event.
“Japan continues to improve and Great Britain can be expected to further improve with the significant extra Government funding being provided across all sports in Britain as they prepare for the London Games in 2012” Coates said.
Despite being down overall, there were some very positive results in 2006 for Australia particularly in team sports.
Australia won gold at the women’s Basketball world championships and women’s Water Polo world cup, silver in the men’s and women’s Hockey world cup and bronze in the women’s Softball.
There were five medals in Rowing (2 gold, 2 silver and 1 bronze) three medals in Sailing ( 2 gold and 1 silver) and two medals in Equestrian (1 silver and 1 bronze) all in world championship events.
“Our rowers did exceptionally well and it is good to also see Equestrian and Sailing back in the medals after their disappointments in Athens in 2004,” Coates said.
Cycling (3 medals) was down but their World Championships were only a month after the Commonwealth Games.
“Swimming was again our best sport with 14 top 3 world rankings after 16 medals in 2005 and 15 medals in 2004. Athletics was an improver with 4 top 3 world rankings after 1 medal in 2005 and 3 in 2004. This year will provide a good indication of our prospects for Beijing in both these sports as they will have World Championships”.
(Please note Swimming results are based FINA world rankings as at 14 December 2006)
“Indeed the coming year is crucial for us because the pre-Olympic benchmark has been an accurate guide in the past as to how we perform at the Games”.
1999 Benchmark 60 medals
2000 Olympics 58 medals
2003 Benchmark 50 medals
2004 Olympics 49 medals
The AOC recently boosted the money paid to athletes by 25% through its adidas Medal Incentive Funding (MIF) program to help them better prepare for the 2008 Beijing Olympics.
AOC funding for the 2008 Team has also increased from $11.5m to $13.4 million. This money has been allocated to send the Team to Beijing.
Another $19.3 m in AOC funding has been provided to prepare the Team for Beijing and beyond. This comprises:
• $8.5m towards the costs of international competition for all member sports on the Beijing program;
• $5.4m for medallists, 4th placegetters and their coaches under the adidas MIF program.
• $5.4m to stage the Australian Youth Olympic Festival in 2005 and 2007.
And there is the AOC funding being provided to winter sports as they prepare for the 2010 Winter Olympic Games in Vancouver and to send the Team.
“Our Executive is well aware that other nations have increased funding to their athletes and sports to record levels and we are being challenged to maintain our position in the top five on the overall Olympic medal tally”.
“The increased funding is paramount to our success in Beijing,” Coates said.
|
