The economic advantages of hosting such events do not automatically outweigh the costs. In an environment of scarce resources, the opportunity costs of hosting mega events always attract close scrutiny. Governments are generally required to commit considerable resources to hosting these events; resources that could have been used elsewhere in the economy.
Increasingly, it is the latter prevailing over the former. I want to illustrate this point with an example: it would be very hard – if not absurd – to argue that it is a higher credit risk which is forcing the Netherlands to regularly pay about 15 basis points more on its long-term government debt than Germany.