pierrec45 said...

"discourage people getting fat" (really??????).

I was thinking the same over the last couple of weeks whilst watching some of the events...beer & take-away food in-hand.

As for the initial question, your qualifications seem to give you the ideal knowledge in regard to this topic, so if you're asking - then I got nothing.

What percentage of our GDP is spent on funding sports ?
About as much as the carbon dioxide tax will reduce the carbon dioxide output 0.00000000000000000000000000 farkall%.

The lottery sounds like a better idea than governments spending directly on sports.

According to an analysis by the Sydney Morning Herald each medal for the 2012 Olympics cost about $10,000,000

On ROI. The ROI for sports elite sports administrators and coaches is quite high. They have very highly paid jobs with little accountability, ie if the sport they work in fails to perform they can just say the other countries put more money into it. Give me the $$$.

Also for the athletes the ROI is pretty good too if they perform, especially if they are in a popular sport like swimming. If they fail to perform then at least they have lived a few years at the taxpayers expense and they don't have a big debt owing to the government for it. Hopefully they've saved up a bit for the now rainy days. There is always sports coaching and administration to look forward to as well.

The IOC and their various sub committees do quite well too. Those involved in the construction of the big stadiums and venues do well. As for everyone else, get out your wallet coz someone has to pay for all this even if you don't care about it.

Five hundred bucks a year.

That's what I'd pay

Just so once every four years I can get stoned with my buddies in front of the tele and watch the 50km mens walking final with the sound turned down.

And do the voice over commentary...

"oh, I gotta poo, I gotta poo, quick I gotta poo... Whaddya mean the toilets 50km away.. I gotta poo, I gotta poo..."

All the sports generate jobs throught he people who administer them

Some sports can result in export $ for Australia, for example the mens 470 team used brand XYZ sails from local Joe sailmaker in Sydney, now every 470 sailor in the world will want them so they can start the race with equal gear.

The higher Australias profile in a sport the more likely we will be selected to host and international event for that sport, which equals incoming tourism $

Not one athlete at the games would have had a free ride, all would have laid out some big bucks at some stage in their career to get themselves to the standard required to even get some funding.

At the end of the day sports are a far better investment and are more accessable to the Aussie population than some other things the government funds

FormulaNova said...

Who said it was an investment? Why do you need a return?

It would be a very boring world if everything needed to be justified for ROI.

It's the government they account and quantify every dollar they spend (don't confuse that with spending it 'wisely').

I'll bet someone in Canberra will be able to answer the question, most probably in a 700 page report tabled in parliament that no-one besides the author will ever read.