The Olympic Games and soccer’s World Cup nearly always fail to make good on promised economic benefits in both the short and long term. Bidding for monopolized products, egged on by ex ante predictions (rather than ex post studies) and those who stand to benefit from public works (e.g., contractors), and often competing with authoritarian subsidization, candidate cities jostle with one another and thereby overbid their means. IOC and FIFA requirements and corruption inflate the costs, which have been conclusively shown to outstrip revenues (and soft benefits) both on a short- and long-term basis — particularly when measured against the city’s next-best investment opportunity. Only Barcelona 1992, which fit the Summer Games into a long-term, post-Franco trajectory, has emerged without crippling debt and white elephants. Following a lull in interest from 1968-84, the Summer Games have been most popular but may now again be less desirable. Popular opinion in democratic societies is turning against the opportunity costs. Intended for a lay audience, the work is clear and definitive but somewhat repetitive.