Security has its price - security of large sport events

Worldwide sports events, drawing the attention of millions, issue a challenge for protection of such mass gatherings. Due to high risk of terrorist attacks the organizers take great responsibility for safety of all the competitors and spectators.

The well-known tragedy at the Olympics in Munich in 1972 is a memento of a worst-case scenario. That year a group of Palestinian terrorists burst into the Olympic village and took hostages. As the result of unsuccessful action of the police, there were killed 11 competitors from Israel, 5 terrorists, an one German policeman.

The cost of security measures at the Olympic Games in Los Angeles, 1984, was 79 million USD. With 6,829 competitors and 5,720,000 sold tickets it means 11,627 USD to one athlete and 14 USD to one fan. At the next Olympics the costs of protection of a single competitor/ a single spectator were (USD):

* Seoul 1988 - 13,312/ 34
* Barcelona 1992 - 7,072/ 22
* Atlanta 1996 - 10,486/ 13
* Sydney 2000 - 16,062/ 34
* Athens 2004 - 142,857/ 283 (source: Wall Street Journal, Aug. 22, 2004)

A turning point in the rate of increase of the costs was the attack on the World Trade Center in 2001 - see the immense growth in 2004 (Athens).

The cost of security measures at Beijing 2008 Olympics is not known yet, but it will probably beat the record. In Beijing alone there will be installed 260,000 CCTV cameras (source: China Public Security International). Out of concern for security, the organizers cooperate with best safety experts from US and Israel.

The security budget for the Olympic Games in London is planned to reach 400 million USD. The number of cameras in London will have been increased to 500,000 (source: BusinessWeek, Aug. 15, 2005), which is difficult to imagine, also thinking of the network of monitoring centers and the number of the staff.

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