China's Olympic "Windfall"

Of course, building an entire Olympics from scratch using slave labor and forced relocation cuts down on your overhead, but even the Chinese can't make this work:

• The area around Beijing’s massive Bird’s Nest stadium will be turned into a shopping and entertainment complex in three to five years, a state news agency said Friday.

  Officially known as Beijing National Stadium, the showpiece of the Beijing Olympics has fallen into disuse since the end of the games. Paint is already peeling in some areas, and the only visitors these days are tourists who pay about $7 to walk on the stadium floor and browse a pricey souvenir shop.

  Plans call for the $450 million stadium to anchor a complex of shops and entertainment outlets in three to five years, Xinhua News Agency reported, citing operator Citic Group. The company will continue to develop tourism as a major draw for the Bird’s Nest, while seeking sports and entertainment events.

  [...] A symbol of China’s rising power and confidence, the stadium, whose nickname described its lattice of exterior steel beams, may never recoup its hefty construction cost, particularly amid a global economic slump. Maintenance of the structure alone costs about $8.8 million annually, making it difficult to turn a profit, Xinhua said.

The proposal to build a "temporary" stadium to seat 100,000 on the south lakefront is a typical boondoggle. The stadium would be reduced down to a 40,000 seat arena that doesn't have a tenant lined up for post-Olympic use, leading us to wonder if it might follow the same fate as the "White City" did after the World's Fair. That is to say, a haven for bums, miscreants and scrappers that eventually burned to the ground.