Look Back on Pyeongchang
On July 7 the whole country was in a festive mood because of the decision of 2018 Pyeongchang Winter Olympics. Pyeongchang has failed 3 times to host the Winter Olympics over the last 10 years. The World Cup, Asian Games in 2002, World Championship in Athletics beginning this month and finally with Pyeongchang Winter Olympics Korea succeeded in hosting. Through these international sports competitions we made a huge economic boom. But as time goes by, problems also appeared. For example, in spite of the enormous maintenance and administrative fee, the use of the World Cup stadium is very inefficient. Because of this problem, many people are concerned about Pyeongchang hosting the games and, as a result, it has become a big controversy.
According to the 'Expected Effectiveness of 2018 Pyeongchang Winter Games', a report by Korea Institute for Industrial Economics, the production inducement effect on the whole country will reach above two billion won. Some newspapers like Dong-A Daily News, Moneytoday and The Korea Economic Daily have reported that Winter Olympics in Pyeonchang can make 2 times higher economical effect compared to the World Cup. In accordance with this expectation, the bidding committee is planing to construct a railroad from Incheon airport to the stadium and high-speed railroad in ChunCheon to Sokcho.
The Ministry of Land and Gangwon-do anticipate two billion won constructing infrastructure to enlarge traffic network. In addition, it will cost 540 billion won to build 6 stadiums. Choi Moon-Soon, Gangwon governor, said at the meeting on July 11, "Considering poor local finances, I hope all cost for building stadium will be covered by government expenditure." Government expenditure comes from national taxes.
As 2002 Korea-Japan World Cup shows, the maintenance and administrative expense for stadium after the competition is also becoming a problem. A local self governing system mentions the stadium full of passion and shouting during the World Cup has now become an obstacle to operate locally. Except for the stadium in Seoul, 9 stadiums all over the country have made over a billion won loss every year. There were over 200 comments agreeing with the comment that since people are not considering the long term, they are preparing for the Olympics enormously. So there will be no substance in our Olympics. One is already worried about the situation after the Olympics.
Building stadiums also affects environment. At the meeting on July 26, Han Man Soo, who is the leader of the bidding committee, announced "It was decided to construct a downhill ski auditorium on Gariwang-mountain." The most well-preserved ecosystem in Korea is Gariwang-mountain. Endangered animals including leopard cat, marten and flying squirrel are living there. Also it has been designated as forest protection area. Although Han said he will minimize environmental damage, Green Korea United in an interview insisted that they cannot admit the fact that deregulation special law was passed.
That is not all. Centering around Pyeongchang, speculation seems to be rising up. During last 10 years, trying to host winter Olympics, there had been some investors. But since the decision was made, much more investors appeared. Ministry of Land surveyed about land volume on July and found price of land in Pyeonchang have grown 8 times higher than average price in other area. Gangwon-do is trying to limit the range of the land to deal against this tendency. Owing to this limitation, we can prevent unconditional speculation but some of tenants in this area can be thrown out due to the increased price of the land.
This kind of phenomenon also appeared in another host country. Munich as a rival candidate to Pyeongchang, for instance, has conducted a campaign opposing the Winter Olympics. The host of campaign knows a lot of forest will be destroyed and much carbon dioxide will be emitted to make artificial snow through launching World Ski Championship in Germany. They knew the event will end soon, and all the profits will go to the major company or real estate, not to the host region.
Department of Sport and Leisure Studies' professor, Jung Hee Jun in Dong-A university, points out "Most of the people must realize that Olympic is not such a big festival as we have to pour our oil on the fire. So bidding committee should minimize the cost to build new sports facility. Then we should make economical, eco-friendly Olympics like the 1992 winter Olympics in Lillihammer."
by reporter Lee Gyung-Won
hakbogw@donga.ac.kr
