While athletes are preparing for the Summer Olympics just 5 months away, Rio is preparing as well. Plagued with the worst economic crisis the country’s seen in 20 years, it seems that the Brazilian government is under more pressure than the athlete themselves.
Brazil was awarded the Summer Games seven years ago, when the country was experiencing a prosperous economy, and political stability. Today, the country faces inflation and rising unemployment, with an economy that shrank 3.8% last year.
Furthermore, President Dilma Rousseff faces impeachment, and the country is still dealing with repercussions from the Petrobras scandal, a bribery scandal at the state-run oil company.
Patrick Gillespie, contributor to CNN, writes about the economic and political turmoil Brazil faces.
“The Petrobras scandal has been a major source of pain on all levels for the country,” Gillespie said. “Politicians, company executives, and billionaires have been arrested during a massive investigation that’s embroiled all levels of the government.
The economic and political problems are a large reason that the Rio Olympic ticket sales are astonishingly low. Just over 50 percent of the Olympic tickets, and 15 percent of the Paralympic tickets have been sold.
The Brazil economy explains the low domestic ticket sales, as citizens are low on disposable income, but there are several other factors that affect international sales. Ticket sales are affected by fears of high crime rates, terrorism, and the Zika virus.
Meanwhile, citizens are concerned with the $4.5 billion of public money spent on the games. Andrew Zimbalist, an economist, studies the impact of hosting mega- sporting events. Aside from a few cases, hosting the Olympics is never an economic success.
“In the other cases, the amount of money that’s spent in order to build the venues and build the infrastructure and operate the games far exceeds any revenue that they brought in, either in the short run or the long run,” he says.
For more on the economic effects on hosting the Olympics:
http://theodysseyonline.com/berry-college/the-aban...The Brazillian government is still hopeful that ticket sales will increase. Ricardo Leyser, sports minister for the games, mentions a new advertising campaign aimed at ticket sales. The government might also buy tickets to the Paralympics to give to public school children throughout the country.
