This is 1976 to the Summer Olympics is 252%.

Smith College Economist Andrew Zimbliss, who specializes in sports economics.

So on average, if you bid $5 billion, you're going to end up spending somewhere in the neighborhood of 17.5.

Zimbler spoke February 5th at the Burgino Baseball Clubhouse in Manhattan about issues

he addresses in his new book, Circus Maximus, the Economic Gamble behind hosting the Olympics in the World Cup.

I think that the countries that have hosted those events with two exceptions,

Los Angeles in 1984 and Barcelona in 1992 have not benefited economically and some of

them have been significantly hurt.

Boston hopes to host the 2024 Summer Olympics.

Zimbliss thinks that the city is probably better off losing their

bid.

Both in the case of the World Cup and the Olympics, there's a monopolist seller of the rights

to host the games.

And what they do is basically is they orchestrate an international competition.

That process where you have one seller and multiple competitors is one that leads to something that economists call a women's curse.

That is most of the bidders will agree with each other more or less that it makes sense to

spend only so much on the games and then it will be one bidder that's an

outlier so the one that is the outlier and bids the most is the one that ends up

winning and that outlier is is the one that thinks that the Olympics is worth

more than everybody else and so that that Olympics is worth more than everybody else.

So that that usually is to win his first.

For more from Zimbalist on the economics of the Olympics in the World Cup,

...