Hacker News Reader

Comment by jelling | Hacker News Reader

Perhaps it gives the population something to look forward to.

We arnt looking forward to it. We never really wanted it.

Edit: sorry that's a bit generic, but I have never heard anyone say they are looking forward to the Olympics locally, pre covid, and post, I hear a lot of people wtf'ing it's going ahead.

It's completely anecdotal, but as a private teacher at 4 different schools I have a wide pool.

I live and work in the Tokyo area, and my anecdata are similar to yours. Of the hundreds of people I know through work or private life, exactly two ever mentioned looking forward to the games, most seemed uninterested and passively resigned, and a few have been actively opposing them. The percentages would probably break down somewhat differently, though, if I knew more people in the travel industry or people whose primary information feed comes from the mainstream media, which were enthusiastic about the games up until COVID.

I think this is now the standard reaction of first-worlders whenever something like this is planned for their city. Everybody knows the costs are massive (and often being siphoned off by corrupt people) and the upsides very few; most people are unlikely to attend the events (they are typically very expensive); and the pain of construction will add misery to their everyday life for years in advance.

The press typically reverts this outlook by going full-jingo once the event happens, and then "you" will be "proud" that your homeland could be so excellent and well-organized and now attracting even more tourists. Expect a horrifying overflow of basic nationalism.

For Japan this will now be harder, but I'm sure a narrative will eventually emerge about resilience in the face of adversity and "showing the world" some of that proverbially-unbreakable Japanese spirit. And you won't have to endure a month of terrible commuting.

I am Brazillian and we had that reaction too.

The World Cup was more popular, but still wasn't widely accepted as some people think it would be.

The Olympics was outright hated, so many stupid shenanigans happened there (like demolishing a NEW stadium, to build another identical one, just because the seatings positions were slightly bad).

So no, you don't need to be first world to recognize how stupid hosting the Olympics is.

just because the seatings positions were slightly bad).

A lot of the IOC (and probably FIFA) requirements seem silly. Pretty soon, we're going to see the Olympics go back and forth between LA and Paris just because they're the only cities that naturally have the required infrastructure, unless there's a change.

Not if they keep changing stuff.

The stadium in question was the one for bicycle racing, it was built for the Pan-American games.

Right after those games, IOC decided to change the percentage of seats allowed behind pillars.

So they concluded the solution, instead of reducing amount of seats or something, was to demolish the entire stadium, and build a new one with the support pillars in new locations.

You are not looking at this from the right perspective. Nobody really cares about pillars and views, but a lot of people do care about construction money. Reasons will be found.

It would not surprise me if only 10% of the population cared.

But 10% is quite a large number for any event, and sure to bring in quite a bit of profit. Name me a concert that 10% of the population claims to wish to attend?

The majority indeed does not care, but a sufficiently high number does that it is profitable.

London apparently saw a drop in spending at shops, restaurants and tourist destinations over the Olympic summer due to so many people (both tourists and locals) fearing the chaos the Olympics would cause and deciding to stay away

People have been memeing "Stop it! Stop it" [0] for a while now.

To take with a shovel of salt of course, but that feeling of just getting shafted by the corrupt politicians and the IOC, and just not wanting more money to go into the pit is echoed by the people in my small sphere.

[0] https://www.cnnphilippines.com/sports/2020/3/4/tokyo-2020-ol...

I doubt you will find any Olympic Games in the last 40 sears that did not attract people being opposed to them. In the end, it binds resources some thing may be used more efficiently elsewhere, as if the money is gone after spending it.

In this case in particular, what started as mostly a joke got fueled by the cost paid for postponing the event, coupled with the eventual penalties that would apply if the event was canceled altogether.

There was a heated moment the first time the gov had to decide wether to swallow the sunk costs and just cancel everything, or only postpone, hoping the situation would be better after a few months.

The first set of damages have already be paid, so now whatever the course of events, Olympics will be a pretty bitter subject for most people I think.

Edit: postponing was not penalties per se, more contracting and maintenance costs. Fixed the wording,

Reply on news.ycombinator.com