A permanent way to ensure the Greek economy never goes under ;)

The original Olympic games were held in honour of Zeus (God) so really the games should be held in the Mount Athos region of Greece an autonomous monastic stare in Greece.

What better place to hold games originally religious in nature from Greece than this region?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mount_Athos

What does Christianity have to do with Dodekatheism at all? Also, have you seen mount Athos? It's mainly only trees and it's very mountainous http://www.star.gr/publishingimages/2014/08/020814141543_327...

Besides, access to the region is prohibited for women and such a big event would completely fuck up their culture and lifestyle.

Well, there are women athletes, so that wouldn't work. (Entry to Mount Athos is only allowed to men)

> The original Olympic games were held in honour of Zeus (God) so really the games should be held in the Mount Athos region of Greece an autonomous monastic stare in Greece.

I don't follow the "logic" here at all. What makes Mount Athos more appropriate than, say, Olympia, the traditional site of the Olympic games?

User Gys (above) suggested an uninhabited island but the Mount Athos region is pretty sparse 126 sq miles and 1800 people living there, still technically Greece but not Mount Olympus although sort of near it (100 miles away).

I don't mean literally on Mount Athos but in the autonomous region.

Plus being an autonomous region I thought it may more sense financially for taxes.

It's hard to imagine that prime real estate like that would be "uninhabited".

'Greece has an extremely large number of islands, with estimates ranging from somewhere around 1,200 to 6,000, depending on the minimum size to take into account. The number of inhabited islands is variously cited as between 166 and 227.'

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_islands_of_Greece

And it would not even have to be uninhabited I guess. Greece is very poor and really needs any investments it can get (as is in the article).

Given the size of Greece (incl the islands) everything is nearby. With a budget of billions it would not be a problem to spend (only once) some money for a new airport (I guess now its spend every four years in some city to modernize their nearest airport).

Most of the uninhabited ones do not have a Wikipedia page, and many of those that have a page have little content. Often, the page doesn't even mention the size of the islands.

I do expect, however, that most of the uninhabitated Greek islands are too small to be useful for this. You would need 10-20 different stadiums, 2 km straight water to hold rowing events, and wouldn't want to have marathon runners, competitors in the 50 km walk, or those taking part in the cycling road race to do 1 km rounds. Let's say 100 square kilometers to host all the courses (except for sailing; there's plenty of sea for that), bare minimum.

Also, it would be a challenge to feed the competitors and the spectators on an island that size. Greece isn't known for its green islands, and looking at that list, I notice that, for example, Tinos and Paros, at around 200 square kilometers, have a population of less than 10,000.

I would think you would need something like Kos to host the Olympics, and even that would be an enormous challenge. The 'normal' population of around 33,000 would increase by 20,000+ competitors, officials and a zillion journalists, and you likely would have to ferry or fly in half a million spectators every day, and all of them would need food and drink, and working 3G.

Well, an island only makes it really expensive for people to visit that place because there can only be so many people in that island. Making it an inland city will at least remove one constraint.

> With a budget of billions it would not be a problem to spend (only once) some money for a new airport (I guess now its spend every four years in some city to modernize their nearest airport).

Look at the BER disaster, it was supposed to open 2007 and most likely won't open until way after 2017.

I believe building a permanent Olympic site in Greece would bring similar delays...

Put the Germans in charge of that. I think we can all agree on that.

BER is a german project[0], and so is the Elbe Philharmonic Hall[1]. Both are long overdue and over budget. “Putting the Germans in charge” may very well not help to avoid delays.

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berlin_Brandenburg_Airport [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elbe_Philharmonic_Hall

Thanks for the correction, I assumed from context that BER was something different when the exact opposite is the case.

Downvoted previous comment, upvoted this one, perfect way to admit a mistake, well done sir (or ma'am)! :)

Most islands that are uninhabited is that for a reason.

Frankly, it is probably better to create a new island than trying to find an unused one.

Also, a small sum of a billion dollars may be enough to convince a thousand residents of an island to leave.

Trying to think a way to attract sponsors when the athletes will compete wearing nothing but olive oil all over them.

Not sure if it will attract the kind of sponsors the IOC wants to go public with...

But given the public broadcast censorship of most non-European countries it will probably attract more visitors ;-) Which is better for the local economy anyway !

That's the new women's beach volleyball uniform they've been trying to adopt.

The main problem would be the initial expenditure. Ignoring corruption overheads this wouldn't be something that Greece could afford.

Long-term it might be their saving grace, but how would they get there?

Yeah like they are still not corrupt enough. Let's concentrate all the money in there! Just dumb!