Senator Eileen Donoghue .. claimed the high costs associated with..becoming a host city would be outweighed by the economic gains from increased tourism and business.
Andrew Zimbalist, who is an economist who specializes in sports made the following argument:
I think the main benefit of the Olympics is a feel good benefit that lasts for 17 days and maybe trickles on for a couple of weeks after that. The economic benefits have not been forthcoming. There's very little evidence, especially since 1984 in LA and 1992 in Barcelona, very little evidence that you get increases in tourism in the short run or in the long run, or that you get increases trade, or the you get increases in foreign investment. There's a lot of hype about that—the proponents always claim that it's going to happen—but the empirical evidence isn’t there.
So Senator Eileen Donoghue, show us your data.