The Olympic Opening and Closing Ceremonies are a Colossal Waste of $34M

[eeyore]

If the IOC is truly interested in promoting world harmony, they should take the $34 million spent on those ridiculously bloated ceremonies and donate it. Think of what that money would mean to peace and hunger relief organizations. Instead it is spent on really crappy pageantry that is blown over the course of two evenings. Very sad.

[FightingIrish]

1. The Italian media coverage was better

What most Americans didn't see was a hot blond Polish streaker that made Janet Jackson's wardrobe malfuntion seem prudish. Silvio Brelusconi received a resounding chorus of whistles (Italian boos)when he was introduced. That was the big headline in the Italian press.

[wake.up.america]

2. It will not stop because some people at the top of the IOC are making ...

money on the ceremonies.

[eeyore]

3. It's huge business at this point

They are about as interested in world peace as Coca Cola. Well, maybe a bit more, but damn they waste a shitload of money propping themselves up! Couldn't they just throw a kegger for the athletes and call it good?

[tuvor]

4. Does the IOC pay for the ceremonies, or does the host city?

I thought the host city was responsible for pretty much all costs.

[eeyore]

6. Good point. I'm actually not sure.

Either way, it's a lot of money spent for two nights of entertainment. That's really all it is -- entertainment.

[f-bush]

5. The problem with the Olympic is...

as far as the US athletics so many of them act like either spoiled brats, poor sports or out to self aggrandize. It's lost all the joy. So much of it is now nastiness and corporatism!

[ugarte]

7. Exactly. The lure of millions in endorsements has spoiled Team USA

Teammates are jealous of one another and turn on each other because it's all about the jack.

[mtnsnake]

8. It's a lot of money, but the Olympics still stand for a pretty good cause

despite any fallacies of them. After all is said and done, the purpose of the Olympic Games is to promote peace. The closing ceremonies, as expensive as they are, are meant to bring all the athletes together of varying nations in the hopes that they'll all get to know and understand one another better. The ceremonies might not be perfect, but they do have a nice purpose in mind.

[Hardrada]

9. I thought that too and I recalled Muhammed Ali

at the Atlanta ceremony. Truly moving.

[mtnsnake]

11. I'll never forget that moment with Ali lighting the torch

He was, and still is, such a hero. Another nice thing about those Atlanta olympics was that Clinton was the president who got to open the games.

[sandnsea]

10. Not one more movie for you either

The US just spent over $100 million at the box office this week-end alone.

I really don't understand some of the things some people choose to get in a twist over. And I'll just let it go at that.

[eeyore]

12. I agree. I used to work in film & video production.

For the most part, I think that the entertainment industry is an incredible waste. The amount of resources used to make a movie, both monetary and physical, are stunning. Film crews just burn through the props, elecricity, water, and of course money. All in the name of re-making 70s TV shows into full length movies. Some films are worth it, but for the most part I don't think they are at all.

[sandnsea]

15. Yes, of course it is

Except what you want to make is art and only you know the definition of art. And even if art isn't entertaining, too friggin' bad, eeyore's art is the only art worth burning through props, electricity, water and money for.

[Withywindle]

13. But who determines how that money is spent?

That $34 mil could have been spent on guns and bombs too.

Cheesy and over the top as it is, it's still money spent on something that makes a lot of people happy, doesn't hurt anyone, and is at least a token acknowledgement of peace and international co-operation as an ideal to strive for, no matter how far away we might really be from it.

And c'mon. If you didn't get a little bit moved by the mayor of Vancouver, who is a quadriplegic who was injured in--ironically enough--a ski accident, with that huge grin on his face swinging his whole wheelchair around so he could wave the Olympic flag...

Sure, it didn't take $34 mil for that moment, but the thing about the Olympics is that for all the cheese and snark and corporatism and medal-whoring, there always are a few moments that make it all worthwhile. They just don't come when the hype says they will.

[HuffleClaw]

14. perhaps, but a GOOD way to 'waste' those millions imo.

though i've gotta say the real issue here is why did they have to subject us to a few hundred scary clowns?

but seriously, i can't think of a better spectacle anywhere that even comes close to the pageantry of the ceremonies at olympic games. oh, and it costs around $600+ euros to attend one. and come on, thats a good price to pay to see some guy on a snowboard be levitated five meters in the air by a huge fan isn't it?

[OneBlueSky]

16. yup . . . a couple of number by Pavarotti and a little . . .

commedia del arte would have sufficed . . .

[Bluebear]

17. We must have some art and joy, though.

Maybe the ceremonies are meaningful to the millions (billions?) who watch them on TV. Perhaps it is one time when Slovenia or Andorra or Sierra Leone are on the world stage even for a moment.

Yes, feed all the hungry and cure all the sick, but let's start with the bloated trillions wasted on war first.

[MadHound]

18. Oh please friend, give it a break

Mankind needs pomp and ceremony once in a while, just to stay sane. And frankly I doubt that you could go to the people who upped the cash for these games and get even a tenth of the amount if you said you were using the money for other purposes. In addition, such money spent provides and economic boost to Torino. Think of it, the costume makers, the actors themselves, the pyrotechnics companies, etc. etc. on down the line.

And frankly, mankind would be a pretty dull group if we didn't have such diversions once in a while, it is, after all, one of the things that make us human.

[xchrom]

19. complain about governments and how they spend THEIR money.

this really is a huge, international celebration.

a party.

the olympics are not a part of ''the problem'' -- if the world becomes less ''corporate'' -- so will the olympics.

[Lucy - Claire]

20. It was fabulous....

Artistic, glittering and with a distinct message of peace. It was not accident that in the opening ceremony that Susan Surandon carried a corner of the Olympic flag,that Yoko Ono was present and Peter Gabriel sang Imagine. And there was Pavarotti who was involved in the start of War Child. http://www.warchild.org.uk/history.asp
It was the best opening and closing Olympic ceremonies that I have seen. I loved the way that the central stage was designed to look like an Italian car badge. And I loved how that Italians walking into to the opening ceremony in the most stylish outfits.
The closing ceremony was made by Andrea Bocelli and the medal ceremony with an Italian gold medalist.
I think one of the benefits of events like the Olympics is that people like Joey Cheek have the chance to do somthing that makes a difference to people. There high profile gives them more oppurtunities to raise money etc.

[theHandpuppet]

21. There was a golfer who won 1.3 million this past weekend...

... for hitting a little white ball around the grounds of a country club and impressing millions of other privileged men who hit little white balls across the grass and call it sport.

Is 34 mil a waste of money that could spent elsewhere? Surely. But if you want to look at the money wasted on sport, there are plenty of targets -- including the obscenely bloated salaries of professional athletes. At least the Olympics provides a venue for all nations to come together under a banner not being waved in the name of war.