When the Olympic flame reaches Paris and the cauldron in the Olympic stadium is lit on July 26, the host of this year’s Games will join London as the only two cities in the world to have staged the summer event three times. That distinction, however, will be a transitory one. Come 2028, the City of Angels, Los Angeles, will also stage its third iteration of the Olympics.
There are many reasons why more conurbations are not clamouring to play host, and unsurprisingly it comes down to economics: despite the explosion of international sponsorship deals and global media rights, it takes years to pay off (if
