What you’re saying is true, there is definitely corruption, useless building and parking and unequal wealth transfer that happens with the Games in its host cities.

However, my point is that there is a subset of that built infrastructure that does eventually see its capacity realized again, and that’s mass public transit. It’s easy to see the value of that infrastructure in hindsight, but many politicians and residents are skiddish about making the short and long term investments needed to provide transportation services and meet future movement needs of a population. The Olympics provide a guarantee that the infrastructure will be used even for just a few weeks, which help quell fears that the transit spending would be wasted money. Seeing that we still benefit from transit infrastructure built for that short event, should make people see that transit investment is valuable for all of us.