Modern Ruins of Euro-Socialism's Rot: 8 Years Later, Athens Olympic Venues in Decay

AP ^ | August 3, 2012 | ELENA BECATOROS

[DogByte6RER]

8 Years Later, Athens Olympic Venues in Decay

There's still one group that loves the training pool for athletes at the former Olympic village in Athens' northern fringe.

Frogs.

They appear to delight in sitting on debris that floats on the half-filled pool's murky waters.

The athletes village itself has fared somewhat better, turned into housing for workers.

Eight years after the 2004 Athens Games, many of the Olympic venues Greece built at great expense remain abandoned or rarely used. They are the focus of great public anger as the country struggles through a fifth year of recession and nearly three years of a debt crisis that has seen a surge in poverty and unemployment.

At the southern Athens venue for softball — a sport unknown in Greece and already out of the Summer Olympics — the occasional weed is all that remains on the dried-out field.

With no shortage of real beaches in Greece, the purpose-built beach volleyball stadium has seen minimal use in the past eight years, mostly just concerts.

Other Athens venues have fared better. The badminton hall has been converted into a popular theater venue, the former international Olympic broadcast center is a shopping mall and what was the main press center now houses ministry offices.

The old baseball venue has been used for the past two years by a fourth-division local soccer club — although some of the stands could do with a lick of paint.

[DogByte6RER]

The gate to the Olympic taekwondo and handball arena is locked in southern Athens, Thursday, Aug. 2, 2012. The purpose-built arena has been occasionally used for non-sporting events since the Athens 2004 Olympics. Eight years after the Athens Games, many of the venues remain abandoned or rarely used, focusing public anger on past governments as the country struggles through a fifth year of recession and a debt crisis that has seen a surge in poverty and unemployment. (AP Photo/Thanassis Stavrakis)

[henkster]

Well it’s fitting...more ruins. They should try to make them tourist attractions.

[dfwgator]

There was a similar expose of the 2008 Beijing facilities, it’s the same story.

[Mike Darancette]

Fields of dreams. /s

[gorush]

Time marches on...and we live in very interesting times. That said, it is a good time to be old.

[redgolum]

Olympic games rarely pay off in the long term. They are just a money pit that nations pay to increase their prestige.

[YHAOS]

Kinda sad.

[dfwgator]

I think the Games should be awarded to a Country, rather than to one city.....it’s asking a lot to concentrate so many facilities in just one city...they should be spread around the country.

[Covenantor]

Dull lazy stupid bastards to let so much fall to ruin rather than seizing an opportunity, Wonder how much the weight of the Greek Gov controls dissuaded private capitol for salvaging some of the sites.

Ah well, perhaps the bulk of the population can find work in third rate Tunisian whorehouses as night porters and toilet attendants. That, at least, doesn’t require much initiative.

All the Greeks I know and have known worked very hard and played hard. They no longer have much in common with the current herd.

[Vince Ferrer]

This looks like the Detroit olympics. I was in Beijing a year before the olympics there. I talked to a few people about the olympic venues. They were well aware there that most cities lose money and the places fall into disrepair. They had plans for many of the buildings to be reused, but some of them, including full modern stadiums, were declared temporary to be knocked down shortly after the olympics. The "bird's nest" signature building was supposed to survive and become the home stadium of a professional team, but last I read it was falling into disrepair.

All in all these are a gigantic waste of money for these cities. Only the Los Angeles olympics that I know of made money, by reusing existing buildings as much as possible.

[dfwgator]

The smartest move was Atlanta converting the Olympic Stadium into Turner Field.

[Attention Surplus Disorder]

Isn’t the US at least partially guilty of the same thing?

IIRC, the Trylon & Perisphere of the 1939 World’s Fair were torn down shortly after the closing of the WF. Of course, one could say that the optimism of the event was crushed under the specter of WW2. And it was obviously somewhat awkward for the countries that had by then been overrun by the Nazis.

Likewise, the 1964 World’s Fair (which I went to several times) of which I believe the Unisphere thingy remained for a brief while (most of the bldgs were demo’ed 6 months after the fair closed) but ultimately fell into disrepair.

What’s the lesson? Stuff has to make money or why bother? For big arenas to make money, careful management is required. There’s nothing especially uncommon about great big single-purpose venues that make little or no economic sense.

[DogByte6RER]

This might not be GGG material

But it’s definitely a sunken civilization ...

ping

[Charles Martel]

At least it hasn't been pockmarked by bullets or had a portion turned into a cemetery, like the site in Sarajevo.

Yet.

[whitedog57]

Maybe Rome and Madrid can have another Olympics?

http://confoundedinterest.wordpress.com/2012/08/04/mission-improbable-rapid-economic-recovery-for-spain-and-italy-hampered-by-government-spending-and-massive-debt-loads/

[Leto]

My daughter went on a ride down the Olympic bobsled course in Ut when on vacation there.

They renovated the U of Utah football stadium for the opening and closing ceremonies, the Salt Place for Hockey and so on the facilities and enhancements have been integrated into the tourist industry and facilities are being used by the local colleges and professional teams.

[manforallseasons]

There is something sad and something tragic in this story, almost like one of the ancient Greek tragedies. The ruins speak for themselves, like the ruined statue of Ozymandias.

I met a traveller from an antique land
Who said: “Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
Stand in the desert. Near them on the sand,
Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown
And wrinkled lip and sneer of cold command
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read
Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,
The hand that mocked them and the heart that fed.
And on the pedestal these words appear:
`My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings:
Look on my works, ye mighty, and despair!’
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare,
The lone and level sands stretch far away”.

[SunkenCiv]

Thanks DogByte6RER. Wow, it’s been eight years already? To be entirely forthcoming, at least one of the events was held at an ancient venue by Mt Olympus, so...

[dfwgator]

I was just thinking that if Dallas Fort Worth got the Games, they pretty much would have everything built....you’ve got Cowboys Stadium, The Cotton Bowl, The Ballpark in Arlington, FC Dallas Stadium, American Airlines Center....not to mention the facilities of SMU, TCU, UNT, and even Baylor available for all of the events, even some of the high school football stadiums would work as well. I am sure most other American major cities have similar accommodations already in place.

[newfreep]

Any photos of the Beijing facilities in their current state of disrepair?