The cheering crowds of the Athens Olympics are but a fading memory. However, what is most certainly not to be forgotten is the $12BN spent on the construction of the various venues that housed the Olympics.
The only trouble is, the Greek government has not a clue as to what to do with them.
In the rush to build the most expensive and "stunning" venues ever, for the 2004 Olympics, the planners and government of the day forgot to ask themselves the following blindingly obvious question:
"When the party is over, what do we do with these buildings?".
In addition to trying to recoup the cost of the buildings themselves, something that the Greek taxpayer will spend over 10 years paying for, there are the annual maintenance costs of over $100M.
The financial failure of the Greek Olympics should be a lesson to any city, idiotic enough, to want to host these games; namely:
-Don't overspend
-Build something that can be used after the Games
-Don't allow politicians to become involved
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