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Ten Years Later: The Greek Olympic Wasteland In Photos
Ten years ago, when Europe was successfully pretending it is solvent for the benefit of German exports and Greece was happily masking its budget deficit disaster with Goldman Sachs currency swaps, the Olympic flame was about to light up the Athenian night sky. As BBC reports, the return of the Games to the Olympics' spiritual home was widely hailed as a success at the time. Now, not so much and most Greeks view the Athens Olympics with anger as a contributing factor to the country's economic catastrophe. The Games cost almost twice their projected budget, with organisers not opting to use any temporary, collapsible venues, as other host cities have done.
In total, Greece spent over $10 billion on the Games. "The Games were a lost opportunity, no doubt about it," admits former Athens 2004 spokesman Stratos Safioleas.
Sadly for the broke country, that is an understatement. Here, ten years later, is the wasteland which is all that's left of the 2004 summer Olympics.
We would strongly urge against diving in this particular pool.
The Athens Olympics came in almost 100% over budget, yet many of the venues now lie disused
The Athens Olympics organisers opted not to build any temporary venues, leaving permanent structures with little use, like the softball stadium
The canoe-kayak centre at Hellinikon has been left to completely dry up
The Olympic village is now covered in graffiti
The beach volleyball stadium is now overgrown with plants
The swimming pool where Michael Phelps won six gold medals is now completely empty
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The future of Brazil's World Cup investment?
Much like Brazil's football squad, LOL.
Don't forget, Brazil is hosting the Olympics in a couple of years. This may well be a glimpse of the future for Brazil, especially if their World Cup performance is any indicator.
Ideas for the Greeks: Skateboard Parks and or Talapia Fams?
If you build it they will come (back)!
Opa!
A lot of crony corporatist palms got Greeced.
I compare all major expenses ($10B) to Quantative Easing ... that would be about three days worth of QE last year. It's a drop in the bucket compared tot he TRILLIONS spent trying to keep the Satan & Poors from collapsing.
I wouldn't kick $10B out of bed for eating crackers.
The big winner? Goldman!
Aaannnd... IT'S GONE!
You showed the same swimming pool photo twice...
Was that to fill a space..??
I guess the author knew you were going to show up.
Yes, you are right, it was an attempt to fill the space you obviously have between your ears.
Damn, all that new shit already looks like the shit that was built 2000 years ago!
Every four years, we have another host city spending..."almost twice their projected budget, with organisers not opting to use any temporary, collapsible venues, as other host cities have done."
sad and yet, very predictable....and I mean that seriously as a life long track and field athlete and fan.
Ironic also, since the Greeks are fairly famous for building structures that stand the test of time.
Although I doubt these venues will make it thousands of years and ever have the famous aclaim as the Nikopolis or Acropolis, etc.
Brazil is going to be in serious trouble as well after they blow their wad in Rio 2016. Games over...
Luckily, the 2016 games was one of obola's first failures back in 2008 or 2009 when he was lobbying for Chicago to win the 2016 Olympics. Rio won instead, and they are going to seriously regrest winning that bid. Chicago would have been a mafia, corruption free-for-all like the world has never seen.
If you think Greece sounds and looks bad after going 100% over budget and now all the venues lay in ruins, just use your imagination on what Chicago would have been if they had won the bid for 2016!!!!!!
Talk about dodging a bullet...if not for obola, I really think Chicago would have won the bid...but the world just couldn't give America that much "winning" all at once in order to be "politically correct". HAHAHA
Well, that turned out to be a blessing in disguise even though we've still had to endure this many years of the Marxist, sociopath, traitor in Chief.
But in hindsite, his political success actually saved Chicago from ending up like Greece or Rio or eventually Detroit if they had ended up winning the 2016 games. It would have cost them and us multiple billions...probabaly 100 billion or more.
100B? If Yellen eases the funds, that should take about five weeks. Interest f(r)ee!
As a former track athlete (still aspiring to break the 5 someday soon - my record is 5 flat, at least a dozen times), I can't stand the joke the Olympics has become, not that it didn't have ulterior motives from the get-go. The athletes... I feel for them the most.
it was a shit hole last year when I was there and it looks like it got even worse..... Forget athens.. go to delphi.
Poor Greece. They never seem to do anything right. Bitchez.
Wtf are olimpics? Isn't that gladiator slave show?
The Olympics are just a modern day Potlatch.
Atlanta Georgia did a fairly good job continuing to use Olympic structures once it left town. Well, the parts not blown up that is.
jb
I'm picturing monster truck rallies with orchestral accompaniment.
Classy.
Stay classy Athens...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4rwC59gHLHY
Will Spinal Tap be playing that venue?
"Every four years, we have another host city spending..." cities want to do it because TPTB get their payoffs....sorry, my fingers just keep typing that word...
You guys all see ruins. I see opportunities for new olympic events:
1) Running from angry creditors and investors,
2) Picking cactus needles out of your feet after a beach volleyball game,
3) Breast stroke on concrete,
4) Human wrecking ball competitions,
5) Laser tag in ruins.
Who is Micheal Phelps???? oh now I remember he was the guy smoking out of the bong
Right, that's all he's done. Meanwhile you'd give $1 million if you could just see your tiny penis under you enormous gut.
Meanwhile you give ten million if you could that that ugly head out of you ARSE
well said
Yeah he smokes. Let's see you win gold medals STONED. If anything it made them more impressive. Most people lay on the couch when smoking.
Million$ FUCKtaRD is indeed a fuckTARD. fkg tool
That is funny and I'd expect I'd find it even funnier if I understood what it meant.
This is not new, it happens to almost all the olympic arena thingies...
China has the biggest one of all too ^.^
Awesome post. And now I know where to go for the next vacation in urban exploration.
Thank God the Chicago bid for the 2016 Olympics was laughed off of the floor. Most of the construction was slated for the corrupt and war zone's of the south and west side of the city.
Can you imagine what the swimming pools and canoe/kayaking venues would be used for in the future? Me either. Psst... colored folks don't take to water so good.
Who knows? Maybe they could have used the dilapidated venues for a new FOX Sports Special... the urban 'paint ball' wars. Instead of using paint balls they could use fully loaded 9mm's. I'd pay to watch that shit as long as my $$ went to da chillrens.
Kind of a 'win-win'!
Was that racist?
That's so raaaaaaaaycist!
But hey, I think yer onto something there: The Running Man Games!!!
Fuck paint balls and 9mm...that's for weekend warriors. We need to use these old venues for the Running Man...Arnold, Dawson, James Brown...Get It On!!!
We're almost to the year 2017 which was when The Running Man was projected for. A game between life...and death! lol
Movie Trailer:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ceegnWSENQ
The year is 2017. The world economy has collapsed. The United States has sealed off it's borders and has become a military controlled police state which controls TV, movies, art, books, communication and censorship. In the police state America has become, criminals have a choice. They can serve their sentences in prison or they can take part in "The Running Man" a government owned violent game-show where contestants running for freedom are pursued by "Stalkers" wrestler-like bounty hunters. "The Running Man" is the top rating show on network TV and Damon Killian, the creator and host is the most popular entertainer in the US. But one man has yet to play... Former L.A. police officer Ben Richards, framed for the massacre of innocent people, when disobeyed orders is recaptured, after escaping from prison. Ben is forced to appear on "The Running Man", joined by resistance fighters William Laughlin and Harold Weiss and Amber Mendez, (a network employee who Richards took hostage and she turned Richards into the authorities) are chased by The Stalkers, as they search for the secret base of the resistance, as they bid to broadcast the truth about the government and prove Ben's innocence.
***it's on, bitchez!!! It's been totally predicted and I don't know if anyone has noticed (but the world is blowing up and going to total shit!). There could be big money to be made here. Ditch the Olympic Games...that's a waste. Now we save money and make money and we'll have old venues all over the world to conduct The Running Man Games in the future after the Olympics collapse and are no longer economically and politically viable.
And well, fuck...as long as 1984 has come true after all, why should it be so implausible that The Running Man can't come true as well?
Sell it all on eBay ........
Great monuments to modern socialist corruption. Krugman should go visit his park.
Depressing, isn't it? After we've blown ourselves to hell in the next world war, objects like these will be all that's left. Markers of stupidity and hubris. Enormous metal and concrete gravestones.
Looks like images from Omega Man.
How does this level of waste, of malinvestment continue while still expecting sustainability?
You can always tell when the are spending other people's money, can't you?
The buildings are now all crumbled but the Greek Oligarchs' bank accounts are probably fatter then ever with Olympic monies.
maybe it can be re-purposed into a colosseum where the oligarchs are thrown to the lions
That's a pretty cruel thing to do to lions.
I would say the same things about sports stadiums here in the USA. Cities and states pay or subsidize the stadiums of billionaire owners and millionaire players on the backs of thousandaire middle class people. There is always the Keynesian BS about the benefits to the community. The NFL and other sports rake in billions and charge prices back to the taxpaying public that are outrageous. At least if the public financed or paid for the stadium they/we could get a break on tickets and ten dollar beers, right? Nope.
Taxpayer-public money has a much different and lower value than personal funds. Just look at the photos of old abandoned stadiums in Detroit, Houston and other places. Yet, on to more taxpayer funded, bigger and better stadiums with more private boxes for the wealthy. I am a free market guy and this has nothing to do with it. Let's try separating not only Church and State but Private wealth and public treasury...some economic secularism.
excellent points all. spectator sports generally are profoundly sad the more one thinks about them.
You just reminded me of something Thoreau said about tombs made be the dead for the living.
Indeed it will be, if your doomsday scenario plays out. I still have faith that peace will prevail - the internet is still free (and will continue to be though that will be more challenging as time progresses) and generally speaking people, regardless of age, mother tongue, skin color or belief system have less faith in politicians and more importantly in the deep government/big business governing model than they ever had. All this drama is just more circuses for distracting the plebs. Obammer seriously is not the stuff commanders in chief are made of. Going to war will literally destroy him. He's pretending to be going to war (as in his Hollywood mind real men go to war) just like he pretends to be Irish, gay, Christian, Muslim,black, Arab etc. These headlines are deep gov's swan song.
Obama will be fragged in the Oval Office. Losing that General didn't go over well with the Staff. If they don't do something, morale will evaporate.
Obammy could care less about the military.
He cleaned house at the pentagon already.
Besides, he's got his private army with DHS, USFS, BSS, USPS, along with various militarized police departments. Next up? Sanitation workers will be armed. Gotta use those 5 billion rounds of 40 cal that the DHS ordered up.
Wishful thinking
Internet free? You know about a service provider I know nothing about? All of the ones I know of require payment.
Free as in freedom of expression.
Oh, do you know an ISP that isn't loaded to the gills with NSA monitoring gear I know nothing about?
Dup. Sorry.
Good. And whoever is left can make them monuments to remember what NOT to do.
To Krugman, this is evidence of how there's no inflation because we have idle resources.
Even a waterpark would be generating some Drachmas!
That is the shining example of the modern world.
100% over budget? <hard on>
Debt is and always has been the name of the game.
pods
The Olympics....lol.
We've been duped into believing it's all for "THE GOLD". lol....THE GOLD and metals, heart warming stories of athletes, yada yada yada is a 99% sideshow.
The olympics is all about the billions of dollars that gets spent BEFORE the games ever begin, and the contracts to build these facilities going to friends and families of the uber insiders.
Pump and dump. Looks like Putin's Sochi toilette water found Phelp's pool.
Those photos coud be a precursor to pics from some amusement park/mall/stadium/college/factory near you soon.
What is this "factory" you speak of?
http://beautifuldecay.com/2014/07/16/photos-old-soviet-union-haunting-al...
Coming to a theatre near you - soon.
We Americans are so arrogant at times. Like this will never happen here. Escape from NY anyone?
Indeed, where are those pictures of Detroit ?
Brazillians like football a lot more than Greeks like beach volleyball and softball.
Yep.
The Chinese Olympic Village was abandoned too.
Next up
Vancouver 2010
hehe, Vancouver knew the Olympic will, so they build the stadium on a wetland. had a big party than waiting for it to becme a water park in 2020.
Isn't Montreal still paying for the Olympic Games of 1976?
The debt lasts for ever, and therefore you pay interest on it forever. It just gets asymptotically smaller as a proportion of the total debt, which continues to grow exponentially every year... forever.
Actually the Chinese Olympic area has been converted into a large park and is always crowded with families, etc. Still many events there at the smaller venues. It's a beautiful and unusualy clean [for Beijing] area on the edge of Beijing and the apartments there have risen pretty high overlooking the park. My friends aunt lives there and loves it.
The Birds Nest stadium and the surrounding area is well kept and well used. This would be a great comparison photo. The Greek olympic center and the Chinese olympic center. The Chinese people I talk to are incredibly proud of the olympic facilities.
LOL- based on the financials so far, this might be Brazil DURING the Olympics......
Greece is not a stranger to hard times. Neither is Zorba. When Zorba was but a young boy growing up in Sparta,
to make ends meet, Zorba's parents signed him up to be a cabin boy on a Greek Vasoline tanker.
Later on, Zorba's parents signed him up to play center on a Greek football team. These adversities only inspired
Zorba to be successful and Zorba's invention of 'soap-on-a-rope' became an instant success in Greece and later
was marketed world-wide. After Zorba's financial success, Zorba was instrumental in getting a law passed by the
Greek Government which required all sneakers sold in Greece to have bells on them.
Could've sworn Europe was fixed, all better now. Learn to love the Euro, it's good for you.
Elsewhere: fight erupts in Seattle dentist's office over Rush Limbaugh, woman fired
http://tinyurl.com/nmupr92
And let's see how Greece did in the Olympic sport of kleptocracy. The judges' flash cards for the Greek looters show: 9.0, 9.5, 9.4, 10 (from the Greek judge) and 9.7. Its total adjusted score is 37.9, giving Greece 4th place and the Lead medal. The Gold medal for kleptocracy goes to the nation state/corporation of Goldman Sachs, for the third Olympics in a row. Instead of an Olympic medal using real gold, Goldman Sachs asked for a Gold paper certificate similar to a a gold ETF. Way to go, Goldman Sachs.
They borrowed for the Olympics and they are now paying for it.
Ya mas!
This is a Keynesian paradise!
Obviously the solution is to hire some people to tear it all down.
And then build it back up again.
Best comment here. Will definitely have the fabled "economic multiplier" effect.
Looks a lot like pictures of China.
I like the Greek flag on the first image.
Coming to a redeveloped urban paradise near you.
You think this is bad, you should see what's left of Sarajevo's Olympic facilities.
Wow. So that's what it looks like when nature takes back what is her's.
This is what it looks like when we go to zero:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sUqHECc5rPo
Remember, there will be no one to fix the cooling systems on nuclear facilities. They will all blow. All life will die.
Here's a link to nature taking it back.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/picturegalleries/worldnews/9128776/Photo...
"Men come and go but earth abides."
They can dump all the fruit there that Putin has import-banned, fill the pool with olive oil
Mmm... Hot Russian women in a pool of oil... I likes where this is going...
Must be some good scrap weight there. The copper's probably all gone, though.
and discarded shorts on the volleyball pitch
Wow the Acropolis and Parthenon stood the test of time better than this. Nothing like old world craftsmanship. Give an entirely new meaning to the term The Ruins of Athens.
I'm thinking these ruins could really add to the tourist draw, and therefore Greece's GDP.
Bullish!
100% over budget? lol
Another one world wealth transfer up from the people to the politically connected.
It was all for "The Jobs".
Squid's gonna have a helluva time splainin' this mess they made ... another example of God's work.
Squid won't have to explain anything. Who's going to make them?
Add some structural damage and a few hundred tons of trash and it'll be indistinguishable from Detroit, Philly, or Camden.
Detroit, Philadelphia, and Camden...must be run by Libertarians or fiscally conservative Republicans. I might be wrong, though.
I hope for sarcasm otherwise - dumbest thing anybody has ever said on this site to date.
Really?!
So then you completely missed the dimwit just above with his kewl/cynical "The human race must be destroyed".
What the fuck.
Might want to include the /sarc tag; lots of dimwitted newbs posing as hedgetards these days.
Thank God I read everything in a sarcastic tone.
The human race needs to be destroyed. fucking asshole narcissist athletes, politicians, and their corporate sponsors. Sickening. Burn in hell you stupid assholes who allow this insane shit to keep happening.
Although, if you held a venue here at night, with plenty of pyrotechnics and a light show....you might not notice.
"The human race needs to be destroyed."
I could live with that.
Ask and you shall receive . . .
It's already started.
You could always move to Sierra Leone and volunteer to accelerate the process.
He could do a two-fer: bugger a monkey while eating raw fruit bats. Either HIV or Ebola should get him.
It kept people happy for about two years.
A few billion / few million people times 2 years times 365 days times 24 hours is how much per hour of happiness?
"In total, Greece spent over $10 billion on the Games. "The Games were a lost opportunity, no doubt about it," admits former Athens 2004 spokesman Stratos Safioleas."
The "games" accomplished exactly what they were designed for, massive transfers of wealth to pols, crats their crony friends and bankster masters.
"How does one say guillotine in Greek?!"
I think it is "chopadopolus".
The Olympics are notorious for their money-losing venues. Not sure why any country wants it.
Maybe the best solution is for all parties to the Olympics to contribute to ONE olympic venue, to be used for every Olympics. One for summer, one for winter. Greece would still be a good choice for the summer games.
Re: Not sure why any country wants it.
Shirley, you can can't be serious? The sociopaths running the country wait it. What else matters in any country? Think of the children | growth | job | prosperity (choose one or more).
"Don't call me Shirley."
My God, man, it's got to be a gold mine; just think of the skim, the graft, the kickbacks possible. No wonder countries vie for the opportunity.
You imagine there is such a thing as a country?
There isn't, it is a convenient masquerade for the individuals who make up the political class and governing elite. A smoke screen they can and do use to loot the coffers and pockets of the "citizens" of the "country".
They shout loudly about patriotism, loyalty and duty while they steal.
The pool bottom looks like Mike Phelps' bong water.
"Duuuuude! Did you hear that? That was my skull. I'm sooooooo wasted."
+1 for ftarh ref.
Taht softball stadium might make a good farm homestead
Spent a few days in Athens two years ago.
Sad, depressing place. The Olympic park was worse than those pictures show. I'll never forget all of the thousands of stray dogs that wandered around that once great city. My cab driver told me that families can barely afford to feed themselves, much less their pets.
I guess that scenes like this are what any country that spends itself into oblivion and promises more than it can possibly afford to deliver can expect to see and live.
Thank god I live in the good old USA.
Phew!
I wonder if these ruins will last as long as the ancient Greek ruins have.
Not too many real Greeks left, however. First thing one of those ancient Greeks would say if he was transported through time to today would be, "Hey! Where did all the Greeks go?"
NOTHING governments do is ever done well.
Yellowhoard....import a few folks from the dog eating parts of the world..they will take care of your surplus food err...pet problem.
Re: NOTHING governments do is ever done well
Well... come-on. If you're living OFF the government you're doing pretty good. I like living off the government at my TBTF Zombie bank. How many people leaching off for Big-MIC or Big-Ag want government to go away?
Being that government is in actuality a criminal syndicate of theft and murder, government always accomplishes the opposite of the stated goal, and any utterances from them is only lies and cover for same.
The Nazis were a "good" government if one considers that government can only produce poverty, misery and death.
"My guillotine is the solution to 'good' government."
"The government is just like the Mob; only with better public relations."
Olympics & FIFA ... all totally corrupt organizations IMO.
Maybe John Perkins can expand on their function one day.
Seemingly "Cheap" Debt loaded onto poor countries for things they do NOT need !
And then the WS Vampires close in on their Debt ... to get the REAL ASSETS in return.
"Seemingly "Cheap" Debt loaded onto poor countries for things they do NOT need !
And then the WS Vampires close in on their Debt ... to get the REAL ASSETS in return."
Bullseye!
New Ruins for visitors to see!
Rehash of a 2 year old AP article?
http://summergames.ap.org/article/8-years-later-athens-olympic-venues-decay
2004 Athens Olympics was a boom time for imported Bulgarian workers, doing the work that Greeks wouldn't do.
http://www.novinite.com/articles/30136/138%2C000+Bulgarian+Workers+Volun...
It's a slow day. It's a good article for Libertarians to foam about.
Statist Troll.
The BBC article specifically mentions that it was written for the 10th anniversary of the Athens Games; also, it briefly concludes with a comment on how the venues created for the 2012 London Olympics are similarly underutilized and may tarnish its legacy.
Doesn't all of Greece look like that?
No, just the buildings built 2500 years ago look like that.
Based on my knowledge from other places, I can guarantee you that there have been several offers to purchase/lease these facilities by private parties. However, various pols and crats probably blocked each inquiry because there was not enough loot and lucre in it for them.
Chicago's "Block 37" and "old post office" are prime examples.
This was also the case in Dallas when private parties came and asked to purchase/lease rundown city properties for the benefit of the people. One time it was reported that an unused and rundown building could not be leased to a private firm because “…it is the responsibility of the city to do what the private person is proposing." Of course the building is still there and unused. LOL
"How to get a pol or crat on a guillotine quietly? Bribe him."
Urban farming through hydroponics was a great idea, and stopped in its' tracks in most places. Why???
Tell him 'look, just stretch over that ledge there and reach down. There's bundles of $100 bills down there.
Swooosh - Thunk - Blood Splatters.
Sound of roundish hairy thing contacting wicker basket.
Who said that was useful afterwards? Since when does capitalism care about lastingness?
It was a fantastic business for the 1% and the sheeple enjoyed the games.
"Since when does capitalism care about lastingness?
I don't believe "capitalism" was involved, unless one is thinking of bankster-capitalism or crony-capitalism.
"I subscribe to guillotine-capitalism--For every pol, crat or bankster head, debt and theft are reduced and wealth increases."
See what they did there? They replaced the meaning of capitalism, free markets and probably the very concept of freedom itself, with something entirely different.
Newspeak.
There's nothing capitalist about Olympics. Cronyist maybe.
The simple model of a perfect polypoly market should not be confused with reality.
Nothing has been replaced.
Rockefeller, a typical capitalist, explained it as precisely and simple as possible: "Competition is sin."
If you would have a business, then you would know, that no businessman likes competition.
Oligopoly and Monopoly is the natural tendency of capitalism - and is the final result of your beloved unleashed market forces.
I think the annual Burning Man gathering has it about right.
Still looks decent for jogging. On Q99X2 we have a saying:. 10k a day keeps the alcohol away. And, 35 miles a week will keep you at your peak. Oh and banksters jumpin will keep ya humpin. Wait a minute; that's not right. I forgot how it went. Anyhow...
Wherever the Olympics go financial hardship is sure to follow.
Skateboarder Heaven
Circus and bread! The earth will reclaim all in time - our existence is a blip in the big picture.