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Figure 4: Economic situation during the preparatory phase for the Sydney
2000 Olympics.
Sources: Assenmacher (1995: 6), data from International Monetary Fund
(2000: 192).
In 1996 Australia looks like entering a recession during the time when
most construction activities were being carried out. Most probably the Olympic
investments done until 1999 helped to avoid negative effects for the city.
Looking at the beneficial economic impact through construction the costs for
maintenance of the Olympic assets also have to be considered. Estimates indicate
that the management and upkeep of Olympic Park will cost AUS$ 5m per annum
and AUS$ 1.5m for the rowing site at Lake Penrith (The Audit Office 1999: 145).
OCA has analysed the future use of the state owned venues with the aim of
minimising the operating costs to the government. The fear that the new facilities
created competition between venues for the staging of major events is not evident.
OCA advised "Sydney with its limited capacity venues has been unable to attract
world class sporting events and has lost many such events to other regional Cities.
With the completion of the venues Sydney has won the rights to host major sports
events" (The Audit Office 1999: 148).
Looking at Athens 2004, Greece is a famous tourist destination like Australia.
Therefore, Australia's Tourism Committee (ATC) strategy on how to use the
Olympic Games as an advertisement for Australia is useful to look at. Tourism
created the key long-term benefit of the Sydney Olympics — here impact IV. "The
amount of exposure and interest the Games generated is unrivalled, and that will
result in a significant increase in visitor numbers over the next 10 years" (Morse
2001). It is estimated that the Games will attract an extra 1.7 million international
visitors to Australia and generate AUS$ 6.1b in tourism export earnings between
1997 and 2004 (TFC 1998: 13). However, it is too early to measure that impact, but
over the XXVII Olympiad, well over 1,000 individual projects were implemented.
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