.jpg){kind=avatar}
The impending demolition of the new Olympic Stadium has caused some to question whether or not Olympic expenditures are too wasteful. There are only about 40k people living in Pyeongchang county, making it almost impossible to regularly fill the new stadium (which seats 35k) outside of the Olympics.
South Korean officials are hoping the Olympics will boost the area's population by creating a new tourism cluster, Grant-Long says. Olympic organizers in Sochi, Russia, had similar goals, but unlike Russians, South Koreans don't care much for winter sports. A survey taken last April by the South Korean Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism found that only 35.6 percent of people were interested in the Winter Olympics. "The other issue with the success of this particular strategy in that location is that South Koreans at this point in time are not particularly a winter sport people," Grant-Long says. "So the idea of creating a tourism strategy that's based on winter sports, skiing and so forth, has not necessarily been a well-received idea from an economic development point of view."
