As the 24th Olympiad opened in a blaze of color, not every Athenian was filled with pride and relief. Albert Corcos viewed the end of frantic preparations for the Games with deep unease. As managing director of Herakles, Corcos runs Europe's largest cement-making factory near Volos, central Greece, which produced nearly a million tonnes of cement for Olympic-related projects.
The Olympics has generated US$87.5 million (?47.5 million) for Herakles. Its cement has been poured into 40 venues and helped to lay 122km of roads in Athens.
PHOTO: EPA
Greece's annual cement construction totals 11 million tonnes.
"I don't see a recovery to that level of consumption before 2008," Corcos says. "Business will go down by around 5 percent to 7 percent."
The eyes of the world may be trained on sport and performance-enhancing drugs, but there are growing fears that the Olympics will deliver a nasty economic hangover to the smallest country to hold the Games since Finland in 1952.
Before European Union enlargement, Greece was Europe's poorest country with average income just 75 percent of the EU average. In recent years, however, it has been catching up. The economy has expanded by 4 percent a year since 2000, easily outperforming the rest of the zone's average. The Olympics has contributed a quarter of that total.
Handouts from Brussels to Greece have totalled more than ?50 billion in the past 20 years. This has been spent on an array of public infrastructure projects, including the new metro train system taking spectators to and from venues over the next fortnight. In Athens, anti-pollution measures have lifted the smog, revealing a city transformed. But there is a sense that investment has purely been centred on Athens, with little benefit to the rest of the country.
What's more, the Brussels gravy train is about to hit the buffers. Enlargement means that Greece is unlikely to receive as much from European structural funds in the future. What the bulk of its 11 million citizens wanted most from the Olympics was a major economic shot in the arm to propel it up the international kudos league.
Instead, there is the strong possibility that after the closing ceremony of what could be the most expensive-ever games, Greek taxpayers will be left with a huge bill as the country's debt levels breach strict EU budget rules.
Public debt is close to 100 percent of GDP and the budget deficit is 3.2 percent. This breaches the 3 percent limit set by the European Commission, which has demanded Greece comes up with a plan in three months to show how it will reduce its debts.
Public debt has been fuelled by Olympics costs that have spiralled out of control. Previous cost projections have doubled. The newly formed Conservative government led by Costas Karamanlis has admitted that it has no firm idea what the final Olympics bill will be. Some say Greece's decision to publicly fund the games, instead of relying on the private sector, has rebounded on it.
Meanwhile, insiders say "legacy planning" for the dozens of facilities spread far and wide around the historic city has only just begun. There is a strong possibility that many facilities could lie dormant, draining further public funds.
What's more, the hoped-for tourism bonanza has failed to materialize. Greece is the world's 15th most popular tourist destination, receiving 14 million visitors in a typical non-Olympic year, but hotels are running at just 50 percent occupancy; only in the past week have they slashed prices to attract punters.
Greek treasury officials are hoping tourism will rise by 60 percent, to 20 million visitors, by 2010. But there is anger that the government has failed to take advantage of the pre-Olympics build-up to market the country. And bad publicity surrounding the frantic race to complete preparations, which saw the death of 13 construction workers on site, has tarnished the country's image. Even Greece's Olympic co-ordinator Fani Palli-Petralia, has admitted that the games have been a costly PR failure.
However, this has not deterred sponsors from making Athens the most lucrative Olympics ever. Blue-chip corporations such as Coca-Cola, McDonald's and Samsung have paid a record-breaking US$1.2 billion to sponsor the games.
"This in part reflects the time-zone issue," said Nigel Currie, director of the sports marketing agency at GEM Group.
"Sydney did not work for US TV networks."
With television revenues just shy of US$1.5 billion, also a record, there are some who believe Greece will see an overall benefit to hosting the games.
Lloyd Barton, a European economist at PricewaterhouseCoopers, said, "I do think in the long term that the Greek economy is likely to benefit. Athens will benefit from the new infrastructure and tourism is likely to increase, based on historical assumptions."
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