By N Chandra Mohan
Staging the Asian or Commonwealth or Olympic Games involves more than national prestige as megabucks are involved in setting up facilities like stadiums, hotels, and related infrastructure which boost overall economic activity. In 1982, a lot of flyovers, hotels and stadiums were constructed when the nation’s capital hosted the Asian Games. In 2010, the bulk of the tab for hosting the Commonwealth Games was spent on non-sports infrastructure. In 2008, China spent $40 billion for hosting the Olympics with the bulk of it going for building expressways, modern stadiums, and related infrastructure. Similar multiplier effects may be expected if India pursues hosting the 2036 Olympics.
Nevertheless, there has always been a steady drumbeat of criticism in this country over staging these events, including the Olympics. Interestingly, this has emanated from none other than Union sports and youth affairs ministers of yesteryear like Mani Shankar Aiyar and the late MS Gill. Sixteen years ago, Aiyar held that while hosting the CWG was an attempt to improve the nation’s image internationally, it had little relevance for the common man. Six years ago, Gill told the Rajya Sabha that India should not be thinking of hosting the Olympics considering the levels of poverty in the country, adding that India needs to think seriously whether it can spend as much as China did in 2008.
There is now a similar groundswell of scepticism regarding India’s intention to bid for the 2036 Olympics as indicated by prime minister Narendra Modi while addressing the 141st International Olympic Committee session. The criticism largely is that the costs of this extravaganza far outweigh the benefits. It is argued that India needs to look at the experience of other nations that have hosted this event, which has saddled them with mountains of debt which they are struggling to repay. They have built facilities for this event like the Bird’s Nest stadium in Beijing which requires $10 million annually for its upkeep. Sydney’s Olympics stadium similarly entails $30 million a year to maintain.
But if staging the summer Olympics is a recipe for fiscal stress as the facilities remain idle after the event, why do countries, both developed and emerging, fiercely compete to stage it every four years? Some nations have held the games twice. Australia hosted in 1956 and 2000 and will do so again in 2032. London is the first city to host the games three times. So, too, will Paris as the host in 2024. Los Angeles follows suit as the venue in 2028, with the tally for the country as a whole rising to five. As for the emerging world, India’s intent to seriously bid for the Games follows the earlier successes of Mexico hosting it in 1968, South Korea in 1988, China in 2008 and Brazil in 2016.
The motivations of the emerging world are more complex than just national prestige. Such countries hope that hosting the Olympic Games accelerates their movement up the ladder of development and follows a “fairly predictable” trajectory, argues management guru Kenichi Ohmae in his book End of the Nation State. Mexico staged the 1968 Olympics just as it passed the threshold level of $3,000 per capita gross national product (GNP). Similarly, the Seoul Olympics were associated with South Korea having crossed the $5,000 per capita GNP level. South Korea went on to hit the $10,000 per capita GNP threshold to join the rich OECD club. China crossed the $3,000 threshold in 2008.
Why is this so? As these countries steadily climb the ladder of development the “pull of the global economy” became irresistible. Ohmae’s take is that as they hit the $3,000 per capita income threshold, “there is usually a strong, but steady, increase in the desire to achieve more active involvement with the global economy, both as a market and as a source for basic consumer goods…The strength of the wish to be part of the global economic system escalates rapidly.” The symbol of choice in this regard is hosting the Olympic Games. These economic stakes far outweigh the ones based on national prestige and honour or what is popularly referred to as a “coming out party”.
PM Modi’s pitch is that India is well placed to host the Olympics.as it will be one of the foremost economic powers with the necessary infrastructure in place in the next 13 years. But as for its sporting prowess, the big question is whether we can raise the bar to excel in this world-class event as we have at the recent Commonwealth and Asian Games? India has in fact won only 35 medals in all editions of the summer Olympics. In track and field, it won a solitary gold in 2020 and two silvers way back in 1900. If India is keen on displaying its athletic capability, what is to be done to ensure this by 2036? An aspirational objective surely must be to develop sprinters who can one day challenge the dominance of Jamaicans and Africans in middle and long-distance running besides leaping, jumping and hurling the discus and javelin to record-breaking levels at the world’s greatest sporting event.
N Chandra Mohan, the writer is an economics and business commentator based in New Delhi. Views are personal