chancellor of the duchy of besses o' th' barn and prestwich tesco wrote:

Well, people will stlll be coming to London, Paris, Madrid, NYC or
Moscow. They're hardly out of the way destinations. I don't see your
point. The regeneration in Manchester just because of the _Commonwealth_
Games was pretty significant, and proved a real boost to the city.



But David the UK is a rich country and Manchester's situation was improving
in any case...

I can see the Olympics being a "prestige" event that proclaims a country as
finally being an equal contender on the world stage, e.g. Tokyo 1964 but for
any developed nation it's really a waste of time and money. Sports venues
are nice, but they are really a luxury for the few paid for by the taxes of
the many. There is *no* economic value accruing to a city or region from
holding professional sporting events...in fact professional sports teams,
facilities, etc. are *always* a money - loser...

Let private business pay the price for any professional sporting
events/infrastructure, us taxpayers are sick and tired of subsidising
wealthy team owners, etc. etc....

A city like New York needs to spend those billions on a direct rail link to
JFK airport, London's subways need re - building, Paris needs to pay
attention to it's poorer citizens in the suburbs...no taxpayer money needs
to be spent on sports.

--
Best
Greg