The location for the 2016 Olympics will be decided tomorrow. A number of Chicagoans are openly against Chicago winning the bid:
1) The Chicago Tribune had a poll in August that showed only 47% support Chicago's bid
2) Gene Wojciechowski openly argued against in an ESPN.com article today
3) Some are even actively promoting Rio's bid which is something I am full agreement with.
My question to you is this: would you want your home town to win an Olympic bid?
No. The only thing that would come out of San Diego getting the Olympics is that the entire world would see how awesome our city is, and everyone would want to move there. No thank you - I'm a grumpy old man who wants my city to stay the way it is
ReplyDeleteI wanted San Francisco to win the 2016 USOC bid - I'm not sure if I was in the majority or minority, but if I had to guess, I'd say majority.
ReplyDeleteI'm fully aware about the financial "troubles" of recent host cities (Olympics being a net loss for the city), but don't think this is nearly as big an issue as it is portrayed. Sure, in the short run, you're screwed, but think of all the updates you've made to your infrastructure; you would have had to perform those renovations sooner or later - might as well bite the bullet now.
In addition, my main reason for supporting our bid was the simply wanting to be close to the Olympics. One of my goals is to be able to attend as many Olympics as possible in the future (I hope to be able to make it up to Vancouver this winter). I love the Olympics.
I read Gene Wojciechowski's article and it mentioned that only 45% of Chicagoans are against the bid, meaning there's an 8% gap, and enough statistical error ... wait, I just realized that a majority doesn't matter. For something like this you would expect a very high percentage of supporters.
ReplyDeleteAnyways, I would love to host the Olympics (I'm not sure if my home town is San Diego or San Francisco), because it is so much more than finance and money. It's part of world history.
Royce, your sentiment reminded me of one of Colin Cowherd's rants...(paraphrasing)
ReplyDeleteThe ones who get angry when you insult their city are from cities with low self-esteem. If you insult San Diego, they actually encourage it, "Yeah, keep insulting San Diego, fewer people will move here." It's places like Cleveland and Pittsburgh that insist it is an amazing place to live and are outraged at anyone disrespecting such a fine metropolitan area.
Pittsburgh is in fact a cool city to live in...very much reminds me of a young, mini SF stuck in Appalachia...
ReplyDeleteFYI - Chicago and Japan have been eliminated; I hope Rio wins - I would love me some Rio...no, not Rio Ferdinand, you crazies!
ReplyDeleteWow, a Rio Ferdinand joke. Very niche Scott. You know I was surprised he's English? That sounds like a hispanic name for sure.
ReplyDeleteMadrid would be a bad choice, not because the city isn't good (I love it) but because the country already had Barcelona Olympics not that long ago. They should go with Rio.
And they did - Rio 2016; here I come!
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