FREE delivery Friday, November 3. Details

Or fastest delivery November 1 - 2. Details

Select delivery location

Only 1 left in stock - order soon.

$$27.85 () Includes selected options. Includes initial monthly payment and selected options. Details

Payment

Secure transaction

Payment

Secure transaction

We work hard to protect your security and privacy. Our payment security system encrypts your information during transmission. We don’t share your credit card details with third-party sellers, and we don’t sell your information to others. Learn more

Ships from

Bookstan

Ships from

Bookstan

Sold by

Bookstan

Sold by

Bookstan

Returns

Eligible for Return, Refund or Replacement within 30 days of receipt

Returns

Eligible for Return, Refund or Replacement within 30 days of receipt

This item can be returned in its original condition for a full refund or replacement within 30 days of receipt. You may receive a partial or no refund on used, damaged or materially different returns.

Read full return policy

Details

$3.98 delivery November 7 - 8. Details

Select delivery location

Used: Very Good | Details

Sold by glenthebookseller

Access codes and supplements are not guaranteed with used items.

Have one to sell?

Sell on Amazon

Other Sellers on Amazon

Added

Not added

$23.85
+ $3.99 shipping

Sold by: SuperBookDeals--

Image Unavailable

Image not available for
Color:

To view this video download Flash Player

Follow the Author

Andrew S. Zimbalist

Circus Maximus: The Economic Gamble Behind Hosting the Olympics and the World Cup Hardcover – January 14, 2015

by Andrew Zimbalist (Author)

4.3 62 ratings

See all formats and editions

Price

New from

Used from

Kindle

"Please retry"

$16.99

—

Hardcover

"Please retry"

$27.85

$23.85

$1.97

Paperback

"Please retry"

$42.11

$38.11

$1.89

Kindle
$16.99 Read with our free app
Hardcover
$27.85

23 Used from $1.97 5 New from $23.85
Paperback
$42.11

21 Used from $1.89 5 New from $38.11

There is a newer edition of this item:

Circus Maximus: The Economic Gamble Behind Hosting the Olympics and the World Cup
$27.00
(20)
In Stock

{"desktop_buybox_group_1":[{"displayPrice":"$27.85","priceAmount":27.85,"currencySymbol":"$","integerValue":"27","decimalSeparator":".","fractionalValue":"85","symbolPosition":"left","hasSpace":false,"showFractionalPartIfEmpty":true,"offerListingId":"2Gq4yXB%2B5jYbDzE%2F5gAqvhx%2B1n20m%2FuXi0asOdXxSt4%2FGgPBEbqsa6wfpglovqN2eth60cZnZnL99R%2F8KX4l%2FyemjL9%2B79Jr4crBXcHJ3Q7MDqiBpzkbbs5Y%2FhZIwiWuUcUf7aOI1iEEnTrr4rQQYGIgws9IPrlEOY8PfMogDeTAT9qeDzNkDE7pu3622PWD","locale":"en-US","buyingOptionType":"NEW","aapiBuyingOptionIndex":0}, {"displayPrice":"$1.97","priceAmount":1.97,"currencySymbol":"$","integerValue":"1","decimalSeparator":".","fractionalValue":"97","symbolPosition":"left","hasSpace":false,"showFractionalPartIfEmpty":true,"offerListingId":"2Gq4yXB%2B5jYbDzE%2F5gAqvhx%2B1n20m%2FuXvk%2Brsov6UsG0hNdYhWZDie32SKe6qrO3rzW1KyCkpSnXaQlK9TcdSQGpoqlt%2F9PAbmSWmO6%2BeWKz6uGZYdlDdiN7funHEhSzLUsh9UhWwFEcAQByMTN9jLrQqC%2BBgPZHHRKx07ftY2yhTu8OvXnatUPpmvROHimr","locale":"en-US","buyingOptionType":"USED","aapiBuyingOptionIndex":1}]}

Purchase options and add-ons

The numbers are staggering: China spent $40 billion to host the 2008 Summer Olympic Games in Beijing and Russia spent $50 billion for the 2014 Sochi Winter Games. Brazil's total expenditures are thought to have been as much as $20 billion for the World Cup this summer and Qatar, which will be the site of the 2022 World Cup, is estimating that it will spend $200 billion. How did we get here? And is it worth it? Those are among the questions noted sports economist Andrew Zimbalist answers in Circus Maximus: The Economic Gamble Behind Hosting the Olympics and the World Cup. Both the Olympics and the World Cup are touted as major economic boons for the countries that host them, and the competition is fierce to win hosting rights. Developing countries especially see the events as a chance to stand in the world’s spotlight. Circus Maximus traces the path of the Olympic Games and the World Cup from noble sporting events to exhibits of excess. It exposes the hollowness of the claims made by their private industry boosters and government supporters, all illustrated through a series of case studies ripping open the experiences of Barcelona, Sochi, Rio, and London. Zimbalist finds no net economic gains for the countries that have played host to the Olympics or the World Cup. While the wealthy may profit, those in the middle and lower income brackets do not, and Zimbalist predicts more outbursts of political anger like that seen in Brazil surrounding the 2014 World Cup.

Print length

175 pages
Language

English
Publisher

Brookings Institution Press
Publication date

January 14, 2015
Dimensions

6 x 1 x 9 inches
ISBN-10

9780815726517
ISBN-13

978-0815726517
See all details

Andrew Zimbalist
20
Paperback
30 offers from $10.90

Editorial Reviews

Review

"You'll be hearing a lot in the coming years about the problems cities face when they consider hosting the Olympic Games and the World Cup. This international issue is thoroughly explored by Andrew Zimbalist in his important new book, Circus Maximus. Zimbalist is the perfect person to delve into this timely topic, located at the intersection of sports and economics."—Christine Brennan, USA Today national sports columnist, ABC News and CNN commentator

"Andrew Zimbalist is a perpetual source of insight on the economics and administration of modern sports. When weighing the very real risks and rewards of hosting major international events, political leaders and informed citizens should carefully consider the information and arguments presented here before rolling the dice."—Bob Costas, Broadcaster, NBC Sports and Major League Baseball Network

"It's time for cities to stop the mega-sports madness. Andrew Zimbalist shows why hosting the Olympics and the World Cup is almost always a boondoggle. Great stuff!"—Richard Florida, Director of the University of Toronto's Martin Prosperity Institute and author of The Rise of the Creative Class

"Andrew Zimbalist documents how the officials who run the international sports organizations that authorize these events profit handsomely, while host cities and nations experience ever-increasing losses, and why before-the-fact claims that such events will deliver long-term economic benefits typically are wildly inaccurate."—Roger Noll, Professor of Economics, Stanford University

"Pssst. Wanna buy a velodrome cheap? Andrew Zimbalist's penetrating examination of how the International Olympic Committee and FIFA have sweet-talked cities and nations into hosting their extravaganzas is absolutely devastating in its ugly detail."—Frank Deford, Author and Commentator

"Circus Maximus shines a bright light on the much-needed discussion about the unconscionable expense surrounding both the bidding process and hosting of the Olympics and the World Cup. The perfectly titled book will leave you gasping for reform. Immediately."—Julie Foudy, ESPN analyst, former U.S. national soccer team captain-winner of two World Cups and three Olympic medals

"Indispensable for anyone who wants to understand the impact of hosting the Olympics."— Evan Horowitz, Boston Globe

About the Author

Andrew Zimbalist is the Robert A. Woods Professor of Economics at Smith College. He is the author of three Brookings Institition Press titles: Sports, Jobs, and Taxes: The Economic Impact of Sports Teams and Stadiums (1997); May The Best Team Win: Baseball Economics and Public Policy (2003); and National Pastime: How Americans Play Baseball and the Rest of the World Plays Soccer (2005).

Product details

ASIN ‏ : ‎ 0815726511
Publisher ‏ : ‎ Brookings Institution Press; First Edition (January 14, 2015)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 175 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 9780815726517
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0815726517
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 15.3 ounces
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6 x 1 x 9 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #1,986,774 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #1,547 in Economic Policy
- #1,874 in International Economics (Books)
- #1,979 in Economic Policy & Development (Books)

Customer Reviews:
4.3 62 ratings

Brief content visible, double tap to read full content.

Full content visible, double tap to read brief content.

Videos

Help others learn more about this product by uploading a video!

Upload your video

Important information

To report an issue with this product, click here.

About the author

Follow authors to get new release updates, plus improved recommendations.

Andrew S. Zimbalist

Brief content visible, double tap to read full content.

Full content visible, double tap to read brief content.

Biographical Information about Andrew Zimbalist

Andrew Zimbalist is the Robert A. Woods Professor of Economics at Smith College, where he has been in the Economics Department since 1974. He received his B.A. from the University of Wisconsin, Madison, in 1969 and his M.A. and Ph.D. from Harvard University in 1972 and 1974 respectively. He has consulted in Cuba and Latin America for the United Nations Development Program, the U.S. Agency for International Development, and numerous companies, and has consulted in the sports industry for players' associations, cities, companies, and leagues. He has published several dozen articles and twenty-five books, including Baseball and Billions (1992), Sports, Jobs and Taxes (1997), Unpaid Professionals: Commercialism and Conflict in Big-time College Sports (1999), The Economics of Sport, I & II (2001), May the Best Team Win: Baseball Economics and Public Policy (2003), National Pastime: How Americans Play Baseball and the Rest of the World Plays Soccer (with Stefan Szymanski) (2005), In the Best Interests of Baseball? The Revolutionary Reign of Bud Selig (2006), The Bottom Line: Observations and Arguments on the Sports Business (2006), Equal Play: Title IX and Social Change (with Nancy Hogshead-Makar) (2007), Circling the Bases: Essays on the Challenges and Prospects of the Sports Industry (2010), International Handbook on the Economics of Mega Sporting Events (with Wolfgang Maennig) (2012), The Sabermetric Revolution: Assessing the Growth of Analytics on Baseball (with Ben Baumer) (2014), Circus Maximus: The Economic Gamble Behind Hosting the Olympics and the World Cup, (2016), Unwinding Madness: What Went Wrong with College Sports and How to Fix It, (with Donna Lopiano and Gerry Gurney) (January 2017), and No Boston Olympics: How and Why Smart Cities Are Passing on the Torch (with Chris Dempsey) (March 2017). He is currently working on a book on the Rio Olympics of 2016.

Customer reviews

4.3 out of 5

62 global ratings

1 star

0%

How customer reviews and ratings work

Sort reviews by

Top reviews from the United States

There was a problem filtering reviews right now. Please try again later.

RVO

Fantastic book about the troubling economics of the Olympic Games

Reviewed in the United States on March 2, 2015

Verified Purchase

This is an extremely well written book that relentlessly and completely gives the lie to the oft-spoken idea that large sporting events like the Olympics and World Cup are economic gold mines for host cities or countries. Simply put, they aren't. But it's worse than that. Andrew Zimbalist uses facts, pertinent economic explanations, humor and irony to explain how host cities are nearly all left with economic disasters after the Olympics and World Cup leave town, taking most of the financial gain with them. The book showcases the sometimes insane euphoria, and big cash, that goes into bidding for world class sporting events with promises of increased tourism during the games that extends after the games, increased cache and economic preimenance that go along with hosting such events.

Zimbalist does a fantastic job of explaining that the Olympic Games don't even bring more tourists to a city while they are happening, let alone for years afterward. London actually had fewer tourists in the Summer of 2012. As for the supposed cache attached to host cities, this book explains it can all go bad if there is a terrorist attack, protests, or, as in Brazil, deaths associated with the construction of venues.

And the book showcases how the 'legacy' of hosting these events can often turn into a public relations nightmare when, like Athens and Beijing there are rotting stadiums that scar the landscape, or, like Sochi, you leave an impression of an infrastructure mess.

And for those cities who eagerly jump at the chance for a bid, they often cite the 1984 Olympic Games in LA (which turned a modest profit) and the 1992 Barcelona Games, (which excellerated that city's rise as a city of consequence), Zimbalist clearly why those two cities are singular events, not easily reproduced.

I love the Olympics. This book tells another side of the story beyond the athletic drama of the games. After reading this book, I hope my city never even bids for an Olympics.

7 people found this helpful

Helpful

Leonardo

A real eye opener

Reviewed in the United States on April 16, 2015

Verified Purchase

Through the use of extensive facts and data Zimbalist makes the case that the Olympic committees and promoters are only concerned with their own profit and power. Everyone in Massachusetts who will vote on soliciting the forthcoming Olympic bid should read this book. If history is a guide it will be your tax dollars making up the cost overruns despite the promises that not a single tax dollar will be used.

I feel sorry for the people of Brazil. The book details the heavy price they paid for hosting the 2014 World Cup games. Now they are on the path for another costly venture with the upcoming Olympics. Journalists are reporting problems unfolding just as Zimbalist cited in this book.

One person found this helpful

Helpful

DTL

Thanks but no thanks

Reviewed in the United States on May 2, 2017

Verified Purchase

This is a very interesting book. It concerns the gamble that's taken by governments with the World Cup and the Olympic Games. It took Montreal thirty years before it paid off its debt from the Olympics. They aren't an investment but should rather be seen more as an expenditure for public approval. After all everybody loves a party until the bill arrives.

Reviewed in the United States on June 30, 2016

Verified Purchase

This book gave me great insight into the Olympic games as well as other large sporting events. The amount of planning and spending that occurs is really eye opening. This book sheds a lot of light on the problems with the Olympics and the amount of money countries waste with little to show afterwards. Very interesting.

Helpful

tax_guy

Informative Read on Fiscal Impact of Sporting Events

Reviewed in the United States on March 13, 2017

Verified Purchase

This book is fantastic. If you've ever been skeptical of the various claims made by Olympic advocates (e.g., it'll help the local economy, etc), then this book is for you. Zimbalist also looks at the World Cup's impact -- or lack thereof -- on host cities.

Helpful

Nick Ieronimo

Good story poorly written

Reviewed in the United States on August 8, 2016

Verified Purchase

I found the book to be interesting but poorly written. It was overly repetitive, it was poorly edited with many similar points being made over and over again. It also didn't flow properly, without a logical flow to the points being made. Frankly it looked like an interesting article that has been padded out to become book size. Lastly the author points to all the problems faced by the IOC and FIFA but offers no solution to how to fix them.

Helpful

Patrick K

Great Book Interesting Topic

Reviewed in the United States on April 14, 2015

Verified Purchase

We always hear that hosting a world wide sporting event will be great for our local economy etc. not so fast. Zimbalist does a great job dispelling those myths. Great Book, easy to understand and drives the point home with details, facts and figures

One person found this helpful

Helpful

Mike

Very good job on the waste and corruption of these big ...

Reviewed in the United States on August 28, 2015

Verified Purchase

Very good job on the waste and corruption of these big time over the top events.
It seems only the most repressive regimes now want to spend billions on an event where the ROI is basically zero!

Helpful

Top reviews from other countries

JB

A most interesting read...

Reviewed in Canada on October 15, 2018

Verified Purchase

This is an interesting book in its own right, but particularly for citizens of cities contemplating hosting an Olympics or World Cup.

I happen to live in Calgary, Canada, currently contemplating a bid to host the 2026 Winter Olympics, 38 years after hosting the 1988 games. Even though the bid contemplates re-furbishing and re-using most of the '88 facilities, the costs remain enormous, and would most likely be shouldered by Calgary taxpayers. We rescheduled to vote in a public referendum on the matter in mid-November.

I lived here in '88 too, and I think most Calgarians view the '88 Games as a success and a a real benefit to the city. What this book does is strip away the hype and put the real costs and supposed benefits on the table, a very useful exercise, allowing at the very least for informed decision making.

One person found this helpful

Lutyens

Wobbly Sourcing

Reviewed in Canada on April 30, 2015

Verified Purchase

I don't doubt the central thesis of this book, that big sporting events do not provide the economic returns that are promised, but the book wasn't very long and there was some wobbly sourcing. I live in Vancouver so I know something about the Vancouver 2010 Olympics. These olympics don't feature much in the book mostly because they weren't as mega as most of these mega events (Games 1.9b, Venues 0.8b, Security 0.9b, Total 3.6b), but where they do figure the information is not accurate. Zimbalist cites a NYT article for the story that the Olympic Village left the city with $1b in debt. That article cites another NYT article for that figure, but the first article doesn't even say that. In reality, even though the developer of the Olympic Village went into receivership and the city needed to step in and complete the project, the Olympic Village did not lose money for the city. What happened is that the developer promised to buy some property from the city for $200m and the city eventually sold it for $70m. The original price was probably unrealistic, so the loss to the city isn't even the whole $130m shortfall. From the NYT articles that Zimbalist cites you get none of this. And Zimbalist's sources for other funding cuts and shortfalls are just a weak with the sources being really more like chatty opinion pieces. This makes me wonder about what Zimbalist says about the other events that I don't know much about. If it is all that sloppy, then this isn't much of a book.

2 people found this helpful

Amazon Customer

A 180° change of mind

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on May 6, 2016

Verified Purchase

The information presented on this book clearly made me think about the reality of these events. I recommend this book to help expand your mind. And the next time you see an Olympic games or world cup you will never see them the same way

daniel Froese

A great read

Reviewed in Canada on February 18, 2017

Verified Purchase

A very interesting and eye opening read. I would recommend this book to those interested in sport and economics. A well written book.

One person found this helpful

Airton T Stein

Circus maximus

Reviewed in Brazil on July 15, 2016

Verified Purchase

It is a very interesting overview on the impact of megaevents in countries, specially the emerging ones, such as Brazil.

See more reviews

Buy new: $27.85$27.85 FREE delivery: Friday, Nov 3 Ships from: Bookstan Sold by: Bookstan

Buy used: $1.97

Other Sellers on Amazon

Follow the Author

Circus Maximus: The Economic Gamble Behind Hosting the Olympics and the World Cup Hardcover – January 14, 2015

There is a newer edition of this item:

Purchase options and add-ons

Customers who viewed this item also viewed

Editorial Reviews

Review

About the Author

Product details

Videos

Important information

About the author

Andrew S. Zimbalist

Customer reviews

Top reviews from the United States

There was a problem filtering reviews right now. Please try again later.

Top reviews from other countries

Buy new:

$27.85

FREE delivery: Friday, Nov 3

Ships from: Bookstan

Sold by: Bookstan

Buy used:

$1.97