Roman Roberts

HHP 430
Professor Buchanan
September 27, 2016
Oral Communication Assignment

Phase I
1.) I believe there is a disconnect between the Olympic ideals associated with
Olympism and the Olympic Movement and global reality. Olympism is the
philosophy of balancing the qualities of the will,body, and mind. It ultimately
seeks out to respect ethical principles and be a beacon of goodness for the
world. However, this is never truly achieved, because the Olympics leads to
hundreds of families losing their homes, host countries abusing their citizens and
athletes in order to make a showing at the event. Olympism fails, because the
sad reality is countries seek to exploit the system. Even more appalling is
countries even kill people to put on a grand spectacle for the world, and also the
IOC themselves are corrupt and downright criminals.
2.) Refer to above it answers both questions.
3.) Nicole Dryden discovered on her research of the IOC that it was corrupt,
full of criminals taking advantage of the system, and also found scandals
involving how situations were dealt with and how money was used during
multiple Olympic events.
4.) The IOC lacks an adequate representation in terms of gender equity. IN
other words, there are very few women in the IOC, and a prominent IOC member

even tried to keep women from his country from competing. They are not truly
respected nor are they considered equals in regards to the dealings of the IOC.
5.) Norway dropped their bid to host the Olympic games because the IOC
conflicted with their own ideals and moral interest. I agree with their decision, I
wouldnt want to host an event through an organization that doesnt have the
same ideals as I do. Furthermore, I wouldnt want corruption brought into my
country by a foreign organization.
6.) The sad reality of what really happens when cities host the Olympics is
that hundreds of people lose their homes. Host countries do whatever they can to
gain publicity by any means necessary, even using authoritarian control to
remove people from their homes, even kill them.
7.) The results to the medical and school systems having their funding cut in
Rio due to the Olympics were horrible. Medical help to people was severely
diminished due to lack of funding, thus leading people to have their conditions
worsen due to lack of available medical help. Schools systems had little to no
funding so were lacking teachers and essentials to even teach students.
8.) Theresa Williamson discovered that sewage was running through the
streets into the water that athletes would be participating in for the Olympics.
9.) The IOC claims that they support human rights, however their actions say
otherwise. The way they let host countries abuse their citizens all for the
olympics defeats their whole purpose. Not to mention they are corrupt and just
as bad as those they let do whatever they want to put on a show.
10.)
Based on this documentary Beijing should not have been awarded
the 2022 games. The means in which they used in the 2008 games and abused
the people was unacceptable, and horribly violates human rights.

Phase II (Sochi 2014)

1.) The winning bid for the olympics to be in Sochi, Russia in Winter 2014
was $12 billion U.S. dollars. The grand total eventually would officially sky
rocket to $51 billion, with some estimates putting it near $70 billion.
2.) The cost of building all the olympic venues put the country in a financial
crisis. The price to host the olympics skyrocketed almost $40 billion dollars,
which in large part had to be paid for by the citizens of Russia, putting
tremendous strain on the economy and the individual.
3.) The funds for the Olympics were primarily funded through commercial
programs and fund raising. However, the Russian government itself put
anywhere between $12-$20 billion dollars into the event themselves. However,
that was what claimed, when the reality was that almost the entire cost was
covered the citizens of Russia.
4.) The grand total to host the Olympics was $51 billion, however some
estimates believe it may have really cost between $55-$70 billion.
5.) The benefits to the city of Sochi as a result of the olympics games were
improvements in telecommunications, increased power supply, and new
transportation infrastructure. Examples of this are these Olympic games were the
first fabric-enabled games using technology unparalleled to previous Olympic
games. They increased the capacity of the regional energy networks by nearly
250 percent, meaning they had a lot more power from new sources such as
hydroelectric power and thermal power stations in the region. The Russian
government massive expanded the transportation infrastructure in the region as
well, building hundreds of new roads, bypasses, interchanges, railroads, and
stations in which people could get to the games. All of these had a profound

impact on the city of Sochi. However, not all of them would be good lasting
effects.
6.) Venues for the Olympics were originally intended to repurposed for
concerts, conventions, and other large scale events. However, this was not going
to be possible so some venues were destroyed, and other were turned into
stadiums for soccer, sport facilities for future Olympic athletes, and sport and
exercise facilities for children. It still cost hundreds of millions of dollars to
maintain the few venues still left today.
7.) As I stated previously the Olympic Games did transform the city in major
ways. It made it from a Soviet-era beach town so to speak, to a world-class ski
resort. There were hotels and resorts built everywhere and the overall overlook of
the city was turned into a tourist attraction. Mere weeks after the Olympics the
town became a ghost town, and all of the poorly constructed roads and building
were becoming more evident. Essentially the Olympic Games were the death of
the town, it may have been grand for a small window of time, but in the end it
proved to be a waste of money and time.
8.) As a sport and facility manager, based on everything I have learned from
examining how things turn out for countries who host the Olympics I would
stronger urge to not host the Olympics. The result of every Olympics has been a
disaster. They ruin the city they take place in, and put unwanted financial burden
on already struggling economies. The reason being there will always be
corruption, and misuse of funds and manpower.

Phase III
Allen High School

Allen High School is located in Texas and is the largest high school in the state,
thus granted them the largest stadium not just in the state but in the world. The high
school stadium cost upwards of $60 million dollars. It was funded by the city and loans
taking by the county, and also some donations. The stadium also has facilities below for
wrestling, golf, and massive weight room for all athletes. The pros of the stadium is it
generates revenue for school, more alumni support, attracts better athletes, can be
used for events that benefit the schools and athletic teams. The cons is how much it
cost, and the debt that is owed on it still, and also there were structural problems that
occurred and cost the county and school even more money after it opened.

The University of Houston

The University of Houston is a NCAA Division I school in the AAC. The total cost
of the stadium for the football team was $125 million. The stadium was funded by
alumni, donations, and by a raise of $45 dollars a semester to tuition for students to pay
over the course of years. Also, the school itself paid for a portion of it. The basketball
new arena had its funding temporarily cut to help fund the rest of the stadium. Short
term benefits are it makes the team and school look better and compete with other top
football programs. Long term are that it helps recruit players, many events can be held
there, etc. Pros of the stadium is the attraction it brings for both prospective students
and fans alike. Cons is that there were problem with the stadium and it took longer to be
made than originally planned, and also the amount of debt that will be owed on the
stadium will take years to pay back.
In both of these cases I see the similarities of the problems Host Countries have
had with funding their events, and construction setbacks. Such as, being in debt after

the construction of everything is over, problems with the structure of the

buildings/facilities, and most of all raising the money for the event and trying to keep to
the budget. The differences are that the strain of these burdens are miles apart. The
high school and college stadiums will be only affect the respective areas. However, an
Olympic venue affects an entire region, and even sometimes the whole nation
negatively. This is due to the financial burden of hosting the games. As a sport and
facility manager, I honestly can say I do not know if I wouldve handled the funds much
differently in either of the cases. If anything I would have tried to spend more to make
sure that the work being done wasnt cheap and had good quality. I believe that is
where many problems arose in both these schools situations.

Sources

Muller, Martin. "After Sochi 2014: Costs and Impacts of Russias Olympic
Games." Eurasian Geography and Economics 55.6 (2015): n. pag. Web. 27
Sept. 2016.
http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/15387216.2015.1040432
http://www.chron.com/local/education/campus-chronicles/article/Cost-of-UHfootball-stadium-still-unclear-more-6756529.php
Ross, Catherine. "Allen Unveils $60 Million Eagle Stadium." NBC 5 Dallas-Fort
Worth. NBC 5, 17 Aug. 2012. Web. 27 Sept. 2016.
"Allen ISD." Athletic Department / Eagle Stadium. N.p., 22 Aug. 2016. Web. 27
Sept. 2016.