Hosting the Olympics Costs Billions. What Does a City Get Back?

So dubious have the outcomes been for host cities that some experts argue New York actually won the competition to host the 2012 Summer Games because it lost out to London. In preparing the city’s bid, a team headed by a New York deputy mayor mapped sites that could be converted into parks, housing and office towers after the Olympics. When London won the Games, New York more or less went ahead with its plans anyway, rejuvenating large swaths of waterfront without having to divert billions of dollars toward a short-lived sporting event in the teeth of what turned out to be a global recession.