Photos via macos.livejournal.com

Oslo has pulled out of the bidding process for the 2022 Winter Olympics – this follows an exit from the Ukraine (for obvious reasons), Stockholm in Sweden, Krakow in Poland, Switzerland’s St Moritz and Germany’s Munich from the process as well. And the main reason is the financial outlay and expected return… Russia dropped a record $51 billion on Sochi, and you can check out the town now in the shots above taken in August. Not exactly bustling (also kinda looks like Melbourne’s Docklands in parts).

So who’s left for this event? Beijing in China and Almaty in Kazakhstan are the two remaining options – one of which can drop $51 billion on lunch and not feel it. So, start booking your flights.

The Olympic Committee claims that the games are a financial boom for the countries involved and that Olso was not briefed correctly on the likely benefits of the games. These are the people who stand to make a boat-load of cash off them so it’s not surprising they’d say this.

For more, hit the AP article here.