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Besides having a permanent location, which is a no-brainer, I see your proposal as composed of two main strategies:

One pertains to development. You argue that the city should be developed by a government and private development organization. This will share the costs.

The second pertains to management. In return for sharing the cost, the private developers get to share in the governance of the city after the fact.

Do you think the revenues of governing the city could be enough to encourage such a risk-prone and expensive proposition for private forces?

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author

Yeah i think they are. There are some interesting case studies of this. For example, https://marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2021/03/chinas-private-city.html

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There's some very interesting work going on right now in the Seasteading community to create floating and mobile facilities that would travel the world on contract to different sporting events, including the Olympics. Worth a look!

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Aug 8, 2021Liked by Maxwell Tabarrok

I have always said there should only be 3 permanent locations for the Olympics. One in the Northern Hemisphere, one in the Southern Hemisphere and one in Athens. The cost savings is significant plus there are many side benefits. Less building resources being used, less pollution, the stadiums cone used year round for other events just to name a few. This is just a quick starting point for thought and discussion.

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Aug 4, 2021Liked by Maxwell Tabarrok

The solution for a sustainable Olympics is super simple: bring them back to Greece!

Build infrastructure that will be used every two years for both summer and winter events. Spice things up by holding specific events at locations around the world better suited for hosting those said events. Everybody wins, and we could save the economy of one of the world's most historically and culturally rich destinations.

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The Olympics should have a host city for opening and closing ceremonies. The events should then be held in existing world-class facilities around the globe making it a worldwide event each time: biking in France, marathon in Greece, judo in Japan, track and field in Oregon, etc. (Some can obviously be held in the host city.) If cities want to bid to host an Olympic event, they can build an appropriate venue to be used and reused as these events can rotate around the world for future Olympics. It is cheaper and avoids the drama — and bribery — of the selection process. Make the games about the sports and not a television drama about host country and the like.

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