Has The Olympics Gotten Too Commercial?

The 2012 Summer Olympics have begun. Athletes from all over the world have convened In London for the next two weeks to find out who is the best… Or have they??

Many of these athletes are professional – that is they are paid for their services, whether it be in the NBA, or their country’s military. Many of these athletes are amateur – their families forgo many luxuries to place their athletic children in special camps to compete to become Olympic athletes. Many of these athletes are there because they want to leave the conditions of their homeland. Apparently, some of the athletes are there to “hook-up”.

The NBC Network owns the Olympics in the United States. That means that this so-called world/public event can only be seen on an NBC affiliate or NBC related cable channel. You can watch on the Internet; but you must prove that you actually pay for the NBC Cable programming.

London is the host city, they have millions if not billions in money (pounds or dollars) invested. Although host countries attempt to use as much of the existing facilities, they almost end up building some great structures that are never used to their potential again.

Companies spend millions to “buy” into the Olympics.

It has become this massive bureaucratic monster consuming everything in sight and providing so little in actual value.

We have amateur athletic events all around us, year round. The only thing special about the Olympics is that they are held twice, every 4 years. Is it worth it when we have so much more to choose from that does bankrupt countries and can be seen for free.

One thought on “Has The Olympics Gotten Too Commercial?

  1. The Olympics were much more fun to watch back when we were competing against the Eastern bloc. They had their professionals and we had our amateurs. We used to accuse the Soviets of using steroids and wondered if the East German women were really women. We were always the under dog fighting for the free world. Now we are the villains. Bring back the good ol days when the Russian’s were commies and we were under dogs.

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