... Having examined the social costs of the Olympic Games, Dr. Holger PreuЯ, German sport economist and sociologist, explains the distribution effects in terms of population groups who experience an increased benefit level, and those who experience a decreased benefit level. The increased benefit group includes the middle and upper classes of the population base: those in politics and administration who use the in-flux of public subsidies and re-distributions to change the structure of the host city according to their own political agendas, those in the building industries who are contracted for infrastructure and facility construction, and the tourists who benefit from the changes in the host city (PreuЯ 3). Predictably, the supporters and promoters of the Olympic bid frequently belong to the upper middle class increased benefit group. Having a more "sanguine reading of gentrification" members of the increased benefit group are "celebrated as agents of a critical urban movement" (Blomley 189). Decreased benefit, accordingly, impacts the lower social classes.
For the decreased benefit group, gentrification is "class warfare, and the extermination and erasure of the marginalized" (189 Blomley). The needs of this group can be reduced to employment, housing, adequate medical care, and social integration; gentrification resulting from the Olympic Games magnifies these needs. Lower-class housing areas are often targeted for Olympic facilities, and municipal authorities use this as an opportunity to maximize the city's positive image, expelling the homeless, street traders, and prostitutes. The lower class, consequently, suffers from expropriation and displacement caused by the construction activities, which leads to a loss of social support (PreuЯ 4). ...
