Worldwide Sports Year Round

After reading two articles* in the past couple days about how expensive it is to host international sporting events like the Olympics and Commonwealth Games, I had an idea.  Perhaps it's time to institute less cost-intensive, but more frequent worldwide sporting events.

The first step in implementing this change would be to make a comprehensive list of sporting venues that already exist, and are capable of holding international competitions.  Then, authorities from all of the worlds sports could collaborate to determine appropriate time-tables for how often their athletes could compete at the Olympic level.  A World-Wide Sporting Council could be started to coordinate all of these sporting games, so that each week a different sport is featured.  These grand spectacles would be shown in prime time, and be more highly publicized than ordinary world tour events. 

This would eliminate the ridiculous economic costs of building tons of arenas, ice rinks, and swimming pools to host the Olympics, when other places in the world already have the necessary accommodations.  Furthermore, some of my favorite sports like speed skating, and pole vaulting would have their time in the spot light more than once every four years.

I realize that the biggest argument against my proposition will be that the Olympic tradition has been established since the time of the Greeks.  I agree, and counter that the games have adapted over the years, changing what sports are included, and recently rotating the summer and winter games bi-annually.  Why not make another change that would save everyone a lot of money, and may add new fans to sporting in general. 

*How India Botched the Commonwealth Games  and I can't find the other...It was about how the Olympics never end up making the cities that host them any money.  On the contrary, many cities end up paying for the games for years after.
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9/22
Ceiling falls:  More chaos dogs India's Game

"A portion of false ceiling in the Commonwealth Games weightlifting venue in India's capital caved in on Wednesday, a day after 27 workers were injured when a footbridge collapsed near the same sports complex. . . [O]rganizers struggle to cope with unfinished buildings, a filthy athletes' village — where excrement was found in some rooms — an outbreak of dengue fever and numerous other problems. "

Most countries will probably forgo participation in this year's Commonwealth Games.  India's attempt to meet, or exceed, China's display during the 2008 Olympics is turning into an utter disaster.  Perhaps someone from the International Sporting Committee (does one even exist?) will see my suggestion, and eradicate these economically unfeasible tournaments.  (Honestly, I had never even heard of the Commonwealth Games until articles started popping up about how unprepared India is.)
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9/23
India Games chaos highlights worker conditions

On top of crumbling buildings, feces in athlete's villages, and the murder of two foreigners, India is now facing allegations that workers building sites for the Commonwealth Games were not properly treated.

"The People's Union for Democratic Rights, and other advocacy groups have highlighted a series of issues involving the thousands of workers on the site, including the denial of minimum wages, poor safety conditions and lack of accident compensation."
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10/3
India hopes for glow after gloom as Commonwealth Games open  (CNN)

Looking at the photo gallery portion of the above linked article, I can't help but feel that India is trying to measure up to the Beijing Olympics.  From the ill-fitting Tiger costume, to the off-center umbrella's, it is clear that they are not even close to the honed precision and perfection displayed by the Chinese.

According to a quote from one of the captions, "The government spent billions on a new international airport, additional metro lines, and fresh landscaping along dingy New Dehli roads."  All of these improvements will probably result in higher taxes, not a better urban life, for a majority of the cities residents. 

The article also mentioned that the Indian government asked New Dehli's beggars and street vendors to scram during the games.  South Africa did the same during this summer's World Cup, if I recall correctly.  Instead of trying to hide the millions of poverty-stricken Indians, some of those billions spent on expanded infrastructure and new flowers should have gone to helping them build a better life.

This is coming from a person who loves India, whose parents are leaving to visit the country in less than three months, and whose favorite healthy food is the green, gooey vegetable my neighbor's mother used to serve me.
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12/15

In this weeks issue of TIME Magazine (December 20, 2010), there is a small tidbit about how Qatar plans to spend tens of billions of dollars constructing stadiums for the 2022 World Cup.  Qatar is a country "slightly smaller than the state of Connecticut," according to Wikipedia.  The proposed expenditures would be well within the budget for Qatar, because of its petrowealth.  But building stadiums that cost billions so that they can be used for a month twelve years from now seems as stupidly ostentatious as some of the 4-5 story mansions down the street from my condo.  Why not finance the survival of millions in Africa by building wells, distributing solar lanterns, and administering vaccines instead?
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