[Cloudship]

We often associate a particular city with a particular event - New York and their World's Fairs, Barcelona and the Summer Olympics, and Seattle and it's World Fair.

Yet it seems that recently a number of those cities have lost money on those types of world stage events. Is this a result of simply poor planning or staging, or is it a sign that these events have outlived their usefullness? Do these events still have something to offer the host city, and who would most likely benefit from them?

 

[dhuwman]

Maybe because those international events would take turn so different cities of different countries can host them each time.

 

[Harkeb]

These events have become show-offs for city mayors with big ego's. Often endless bureucracy is the cause for these cities' high debts. They always take too long (+ continue infights) to get projects approved- all this whilse prices of the projects soar tremendously. In the end cities have to cough more than double the initial price quotes. Take Athens for example. South Africa seems to he heading the same way with the soccer world cup 2010. At least the soccer world cup events will be spread across the country, and not concentrated in one city.

 

[OtAkAw]

I've always thought that the benefits of these events to a city would easily eclipse the otherwise...

 

[Manila-X]

Though it's not a big event, HK has The Rugby Sevens.

 

[hkskyline]

World Fairs have lost a lot of its appeal as there are other forms of entertainment nowadays. They haven´t been particularly popular in recent memory than the high profile ones a century back.

 

[Cloudship]

Certainly Barcelona and Sydney benefitted from hosting the Olympics. One of things that I see that they did differently was to treat the event not as something by itself, but as a step along the way of developing the city. They planned the infrastructure to work beyond the initial event to help redirect the city. Yet Barcelone semed to fail with that forum thing (I don't even remember the name of it) they held a few years back.

As far as World's Fairs go, it seems tehy have become much smaller and lack the broad appeal to bring in enough visitors to make them profitable.

 

[neil]

Manchester's commonwealth games in 2002 was praised as a great success as it is still benefitting the city to this day. The city is regenerating itself as a original, modern city.

 

[samsonyuen]

I think they might be operationally losing money, but in the long run, the long-term effects are pretty good (tourism, etc.).

 

[XCRunner]

^^Yeah, I agree. Athens spent tons of money, but the improvements in infrastructure, transportation, etc. will last for a very long time.

 

[Macca-GC]

I think these events are highly effective. Brisbane's economic growth really stemmed from the investment thanks to the 1982 Commonwealth Games and the 1988 World Expo. Sydney went through a massive boom thanks to the 2000 Olympics. Melbourne has done a fantastic job with the 2006 Commonwealth Games.

You have to realise that some cities and indeed some countries are just not suited to hosting major world events. They are fantastic for initiating investment and therefore need to go where investment is needed. Sure, there needs to be that inital base upon which to build on, but they're really for medium-sized cities trying to break into the big time.

 

[miamicanes]

Do World's Fairs even still exist? I don't remember a single one taking place in my life, other than maybe one that was somewhere like Tennessee or Kentucky back when I was barely old enough to ride a bike. Unless maybe that's what London's Millennium Dome was for?

 

[BenL]

Nope, it was just a vague project for the millennium, along with the Eye and several other smaller projects.

 

[jeicow]

Toronto is going for the 2015 World's Fair. I think the reason that reason World's Fairs in North America have struggled is because the cities they were located in weren't exactly "known" to begin with. A lot of the ones in the US in recent years have been located in minor cities while the better known ones (Montreal, NYC, Seattle, Vancouver etc.) have all been in major North American cities. I think World's Fairs when done properly can be more benefical to city's because most of the facilities can easily be converted for rez/office/institutionals uses while most Olympic/Sporting facilities are more single use buildings. The Montreal and Vancouver fairs all benefited the city, and both have gone on to winning Olympic bids (Mon- '67, Van-'10).

 

[Cloudship]

Do you think that World's Fairs are primarilly, or should be primarilly, international events, or are they more specific to one country. For instance, the New Yorks World Fairs were really dominated by the US. And the latest fairs in Japan seem mostly directed to the Japanese. Would hte difficulties in travelling internationally in the past few years have a major impact on their success, or would this be irrelevant?