A man and his cause: Tom Vlachos, a diaspora Greek in Australia, started a petition to hold the Olympic Games permanently in Greece.
“The Olympic Games have become a financial burden on countries trying to project their image,” Vlachos writes, adding “it is proven that this money is better spent on real issues affecting these countries.”
“Ideal solution is to hold the Olympic Games every 4 years in Greece permanently,” he notes in his petition to Australian Olympics Committee.
And he proposes to have all abandoned, rotten and destroyed facilities from the Olympic Games 2004 in Athens to be upgraded.
“All nations will given their own land to establish athletes villages with the status of diplomatic privileges. Athletes can train in Greece all year round. This ongoing sporting facility will eliminate billions of dollars wasted every 4 years . Every 4 years nations can vie for the right to stage the opening ceremony in Greece,” Vlachos stresses and urges “Allow common sense to prevail.”
The cost of Olympic Games 2004 burdened Greece with several billion euros, -according to estimations 16 billion euros – the exact volume of money was never investigated but certainly added to the state debt.
The posh facilities were forgotten the day after the magnificent closing ceremony. The famous Greek economic crisis that started in 2010 finished off any vague plan to restore them – or at least , some of them.
In this sense, I hope “common sense will not prevail” because by all respect to Vlachos vision, we in Greece still suffering from the economic crisis and there is not one cent to be spent for upgrading the rotten Olympic 2004 garbage.
We are financially too exhausted for this.
Tom Vlachos petition was started a week ago. If you want to sign, click here.
Note: KTG assumes Tom Vlachos is a Greek-Australian due to his Greek family name.
Yes that would be fantastic and the natural thing to do!!🇬🇷