Ten years after the 2004 Summer Olympics, Athens’ Olympic Venues are now falling apart even though Greece spent approximately 15 million dollars for the once-gleaming locales.
Today, nobody seems to care about the condition of these places. Unlike the 1984 Sarajevo Olympic venues, which were destroyed during the Bosnian War, there was no catastrophic event that led to the abandonment of the Athens arena.
The crisis may very well be one of the significant factors as to why these places have been abandoned, as in a time of great recession, the maintenance of these venues is costly. What is more, many of these venues were built to host sports with little interest (like softball) in Greece. No one considered what would be done with these arenas when the Summer Olympics would be over. Furthermore, there are many venues that became useless immediately after the Olympics left town.
Despite all that, many of the venues from the 2004 Games are still going strong. The Olympic Stadium, Olympic Village, media center, and a few small-scale sports arenas have all found tenants.
Unfortunately, the aquatics center, beach volleyball arena and softball arena are all literally falling apart. In addition, the massive Helliniko Olympic Complex where many events were held has been abandoned.
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