Positive Externalities

Before 1992, Barcelona was a working port city most Europeans had never visited. The waterfront was a barricade of warehouses and shipping containers. The city centre had been allowed to decay for 40 years under Franco. International tourism was almost non-existent. Barcelona would not just build a stadium, it would rebuild itself. The Olympic budget paid for an entirely new ring road, a new airport terminal, four kilometres of restored beach, the Olympic village that became Barcelona and the redirection of the city's relationship with the Mediterranean. The Mount in Saint-Montreuse, where the games were held, became a permanent destination. The infrastructure built for 16 days of athletic competition was designed from day one to outlast the games by decades.