The Czech Olympic Committee, emboldened by London's surprise victory in securing the 2012 games, has declared an interest in pursuing an Olympics of its own, either for the 2016, 2020 or 2024 Summer Games. Certainly, for the city's economy, the Olympics would mean a virtual wedding buffet of construction contracts, from roadways to stadiums to a competitive bicycling course. But in a nation where corruption is very nearly its own Olympic sport, is that necessarily a good idea?

The amount of money that changes hands in the run-up to an Olympics is truly staggering. The 2000 Sydney Olympic Games cost nearly $2 billion (48.5 billion Kč), including venue construction and infrastructure. And the projected target costs can often get left in the distance like a Jamaican bobsled team: The 1992 Olympics in Barcelona spiraled $250 million out of control, and the city of Montreal is still paying off its Olympic debt, from games held back in 1976.

At the same time, the material benefits of hosting the games are undeniable. Many Czechs note that unlike cities such as Dresden, London, Warsaw and countless others across Europe, Prague has a physical landscape that has spent the last several hundred years virtually untouched by war. But one obvious side-effect of the city's never being demolished is that the city has also never been truly rebuilt — which means that Prague sometimes buckles under its own history. In terms of housing stock, Prague seems like it's in a constantly unfolding state of reconstruction, but the same cannot be said about its infrastructure.

Traffic snarls roads in the city center originally laid out for horses and buggies and a population vastly smaller than its current census; public transportation to the airport still feels like a textbook study in hassle and inconvenience; and sports stadiums still evoke the powerful nostalgia of the communists who built them. One begins to wonder whether the city will ever completely shed the ruins of its recent past.

The unfortunate answer to that question is probably not anytime soon — and certainly not without the groundswell of popular support. Without a centerpiece like the Olympics to drive them, city leaders will likely never muster the fiscal courage to commit resources to the improvements the city really needs.

Imagine, for example: a train line running directly from the city center to the airport; an arterial route for traffic that encircles the city; a world-class soccer stadium to host the national team and international events; and a wide range of countless other improvements, both large and small, to vastly enhance the quality of life.

Factor in the national pride and international stature that such an event would create and the argument in favor of pursuing a Prague Olympics becomes compelling.