Opinion | Inside Incheon: Hosting the Games is a financial strain for most cities in Asia
Only a handful of countries in the region can afford to build facilities
It is not easy to put on a party these days, not if it involves almost 10,000 athletes, as many media and half that number of officials. This is what the Asian Games has bloated to. So it is not surprising that Incheon had the highest rate of debt among the six metropolitan cities in South Korea last year.
It is splurging US$2 billion to stage the 17th Asiad and while the South Korean government will pay part of the bill, 70 per cent will be borne by taxpayers of this port city.
No wonder the immigration official at Incheon airport was grumpy. My Sri Lankan passport is not worth the paper it is printed on - I can only travel to Singapore without a visa - but as this visit is sanctioned by the Olympic Council of Asia (OCA), my press accreditation is a ticket to ride.
The official grudgingly waves me through, and he must be cursing all these alien visitors landing in droves for the Games he might end up having to pay for the next 30 years.
Incheon will benefit from a new subway line but what about the 17 new venues including a main stadium that can seat 65,000 people
That's how long it took Montreal to pay off their Olympic debt, pun intended, for hosting the 1976 Summer Games. I was at the Athens Games in 2004 and the city was splendid. But with Greece only now returning to growth, it has been hard times for Athenians while those magnificent stadiums are now under-used.
But new Incheon mayor, Yoo Jeong-bok, is confident the massive cost - although a tenth of what China spent on the Guangzhou Games four years ago - can be offset by dividends from tourism.