Look to the north

San Francisco perhaps studied Montreal's disaster before turning down a 2016 Olympic Games bid.

Perhaps 1976 was the first time officials for prospective Olympic Games carnivals realized there was more to hosting the international athletic showcase than just getting permission and being convivial. Montreal, Canada, was awarded the host role and was jubilant, mainly because of the sales job done by Mayor Jean Drapeau.

What happened, still considered a massive financial disaster by many Canadians, is one big reason that San Francisco Monday formally abandoned its efforts to host the 2016 Summer Olympics. A major factor in the withdrawal was the declaration that professional football’s San Francisco 49ers will move their operations to Silicon Valley after plans for a new bayfront stadium collapsed.

The city needed the stadium to host the Olympics’ marquee events, including the opening and closing ceremonies and track and field competition. No telling how many millions might have been involved, and lost, due to pressure to build a stadium.

Turn the clock back to the ’76 games in Montreal. Mayor Drapeau so convinced promoters there would be fame and fortune that they moved heaven and earth to get the Summer Games. Drapeau and his aides said the event would be self-supporting and even turn a profit due to tourism, leftover infrastructure that would be valuable and the sales of souvenirs, coins and lottery tickets created by the games.

It turned out to be an outstanding event; some venues, such as a stadium, remain. But the bottom line was that Montreal was left with a $1 billion (billion, not million) debt and still struggles from that burden.

One host community after another has encountered serious problems as the scope of the Games broadened and the costs to provide security soared. There was one outstanding triumph, however, when the 1984 Olympics were hosted by Los Angeles and organizer Peter Uebberoth fashioned what some considered a miracle. Under Uebberoth’s guidance, the ’84 games finished well into the black, far enough that American Olympic activities have been financed for years by the largesse.

Promoters love to show the upside of events like the Olympics or football’s Super Bowl, but make little mention of the financial risk involved. Not too long ago, Kansas City officials seeking to improve their football and baseball stadiums and areas tried to sell the public on financing a movable roof by hinting that the roof might assure a Super Bowl in Kansas City down the line. Some called it pie in the sky, others termed it blackmail. To their credit, Kansas City citizens did not bite and doubtless prevented losses of millions of dollars in pursuit of an idle dream.

Time and again, we have seen communities get sold on the merits of an event like the Olympics or Super Bowl and overextend their resources. It is appalling how much public money has gone into professional stadiums that then host events that overtaxed residents can’t even afford to attend.

Anyone even remotely considering trying to land an event such as the Olympic Games should first start the process with a study of Montreal, then take into account how many overzealous and impractical promoters have created such massive financial loads for their citizens to bear.