re: #493 bloodstar

Curious, what venues are empty? Georgia Tech and Georgia State makes use of the olympic housing as student dorms, and Georgia Tech uses the Aquatic center, The Braves use the reconfigured Olympic Stadium. The Atlanta Beach in Clayon County is open every summer for swimming. Sanford Statium (host of some of the Soccer) isn’t exactly sitting useless. The horse park in Conyers was around before and remains afterwords. Finally Centennial Olympic Park hosted events and is a gorgeous green space to walk by when going to the either the Georgia Dome or Phillips Arena.

As far as the expenses go… The Olympics themselves turned a profit, but you are correct that the cost to the city was significant.

However, I think you are overstating your case with regards to empty venues etc.

I attended 8 different events during the games, and only saw empty seats during preliminary or qualifying events. The kayak course in the Mountains is still in use, I have been in two 24 hour bike races at the horse park/Mountain bike venue, and there are events every month at the Olympic Rowing venue here on Lake Lanier (in fact there is one this weekend). Aside from some of the actions of our very corrupt Mayor Campbell, the Olympics were a big win for Atlanta.