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Wouldn't countries just adjust their olympic spend such that it becomes profitable to host them rather than lose interest altogether?

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There's a reason the locations are trending towards being hosted in corrupt places where the leaders don't care if they're profitable so long as they get their piece.

Such as London and Tokyo?

No, like Beijing, Sochi, and Rio.

Tokyo, yeah. It's former governor Ishihara's prestige play that he pushed for years and years. I don't know any normal people that actually wanted it. And since it was decided there's been scandal after scandal about the logo, about the new stadium, about $2M in mysterious wire payments, etc.

Almost every logo had its scandal - London with Lisa giving Bart head, Beijing with its begging peasant, Sydney with the Chicken Head.

I remember the lead up to the Sydney Olympics and no-one seemed to want it - then it arrived and it was an amazing 2 weeks long party and everyone loved it.

Beijing on the other hand was the converse - everyone was expecting it and looking forward to it and then it came and the city went in to virtual lockdown.

You never know which way it's going to go.

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