Hosting the games is not about profit. It is about showing of. Like the Moon landing.
My take-aways
1. Russia can blow tens of billions to put up a show while simultaneously enjoying strong growth in GDP and average salaries.
2. Western media is mean-spirited, similar to what I observed during 2008 Beijing. Instead of focusing on athletes and the sporting events CNN, BBC and alike were focused on trivia.
3. NBC sucks. I am happy that they lost their US Open rights to ESPN. Hopefully the trend will continue.