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2016 Olympic Games
- Thread starter iLoveMyMBP
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There has been talk in the past (most recently over the games in Athens, I believe) about moving the games to a more prepared city because of lack of progress in preparation. I believe they talked about moving the Athens games as late as 2001 (only 3 years before the games), so I don't think that they'd hesitate to reassign the games if they assign the games to South Africa in October 2009 and the World Cup in July 2010 fails to be carried out successfully.
I hope Chicago doesn't get it. How boring. There is no great reason to host the Olympics if you're a city like Chicago. Economic upside? Maybe there is, but most cities lose money or break even. If they make money, it's not a lot of it. Yes, this takes "exposure of your city to the World" into account. Besides, why would a city like Chicago need more exposure?
And now that the security costs are so high, there's even less reason to host the games than there was 8 years ago. Even 8 years ago, the Olympics was arguably a bad deal for the host city, because it was hardly worth it. With security costs the way they are now, you're going to see more cities lose money rather than make money.
Now, for a city like Beijing, which is in a country that's going to become the next big superpower in this world, the loss of money is worth it (although I doubt they'll lose money on this). Why? Because generally, people don't know much about China other than really "Westernised" food that they eat in lousy restaurants. That, and Jackie Chan, and he's not even from China! What a great way to showcase your culture and city. When you hear the word "Beijing", there's a certain mystique to it because it's a big city in a big country that most people know nothing about. I can't say the same about Chicago, which gets exposure from so many sources. I don't think people are going to be so fascinated with Chicago after the Olympics that they're going to flock to the city to see it. Athens is different, as was Sydney. You know of them, but most of what people know about Greece are names of philosophers, names of Gods, tzatziki sauce, whatever. Sydney is in Australia, and is all about riding on the backs of kangaroos, right?
Beijing's tourism sector has a better chance of booming than Chicago's due to a lack of exposure other than in newspapers and economics magazines. People around the world have a general curiosity of China. Chicago is like New York City, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Paris, London, etc. I've seen enough photos, watched enough movies, and heard enough about those cities that even if I don't see them in my entire life, I'll still have an image of what it looks like and what goes on there (even if that perception is wrong). However, interest in Beijing or Mumbai would increase immensely, just like interest in Australia spiked and is still going strong.
PS: I have lived in London, Sydney, and have been to Beijing, Paris, etc. I'm not dissing those cities. I'm just saying that I believe Chicago wouldn't benefit greatly from hosting the Olympics as much as cities that get less exposure.
And now that the security costs are so high, there's even less reason to host the games than there was 8 years ago. Even 8 years ago, the Olympics was arguably a bad deal for the host city, because it was hardly worth it. With security costs the way they are now, you're going to see more cities lose money rather than make money.
Now, for a city like Beijing, which is in a country that's going to become the next big superpower in this world, the loss of money is worth it (although I doubt they'll lose money on this). Why? Because generally, people don't know much about China other than really "Westernised" food that they eat in lousy restaurants. That, and Jackie Chan, and he's not even from China! What a great way to showcase your culture and city. When you hear the word "Beijing", there's a certain mystique to it because it's a big city in a big country that most people know nothing about. I can't say the same about Chicago, which gets exposure from so many sources. I don't think people are going to be so fascinated with Chicago after the Olympics that they're going to flock to the city to see it. Athens is different, as was Sydney. You know of them, but most of what people know about Greece are names of philosophers, names of Gods, tzatziki sauce, whatever. Sydney is in Australia, and is all about riding on the backs of kangaroos, right?
Beijing's tourism sector has a better chance of booming than Chicago's due to a lack of exposure other than in newspapers and economics magazines. People around the world have a general curiosity of China. Chicago is like New York City, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Paris, London, etc. I've seen enough photos, watched enough movies, and heard enough about those cities that even if I don't see them in my entire life, I'll still have an image of what it looks like and what goes on there (even if that perception is wrong). However, interest in Beijing or Mumbai would increase immensely, just like interest in Australia spiked and is still going strong.
PS: I have lived in London, Sydney, and have been to Beijing, Paris, etc. I'm not dissing those cities. I'm just saying that I believe Chicago wouldn't benefit greatly from hosting the Olympics as much as cities that get less exposure.
denver turned down an olympic bid because of the $$$ and other negative impacts.
wikipedia said:
The Americas include a lot more countries than the US and Canada
Ya I realized what you might have been saying after I posted but most people here were already talking about the US as the frontrunner so I assumed that is what you were referring to as well. But if you are using London and Bejing as ruling out Europe and Asia then you can just as equally say that Africa or Australia are in the pack by the same token.
I personally want to see Houston get it at some point in time. Houston gotten hit a few times because they put up the least amount of money for building facilities to house the games but unlike other cities Houston already has almost everything it needs to host the games built. They have 2 university to tap as well as everything else they already have there.
That and Houston is sadly known better internationally than domestically.
That and Houston is sadly known better internationally than domestically.
I seriously hope America doesn't get the games again. They seem to be over there almost every other time, and I personally think the Salt Lake games were a mockery, especially the speed skating.
It wasn't too terribly awful from what I can remember. Public Transportation kinda got a little busy but the roads didn't get to bad. Just try not to have a bomb go off, that kinda sucked.
I read in the Trib that Dailey's whole argument is that we have all the venues, but only need housing for the teams...
the roads here during the summer are horrible as it is. my driving time can double in the summer. add the olympics ontop of that? *head explodes*
Roads are bad during the summer? That's weird, our road lighten during the summer and blow up during the winter, when school's back in session. But you've got some time before the games... you could always move away.
Roads are bad during the summer? That's weird, our road lighten during the summer and blow up during the winter, when school's back in session. But you've got some time before the games... you could always move away.
summer = more drivers for us. also higher gas prices as a result too.
and yeah i might have to move away for that summer if it ends up being here.
the 2000 summer games were held in sydney, which should rule them out for quite a while. I won't rule africa out, but after athens I'm not sure the games would go to someplace in africa. The only cities I could think of that may be african olympic hopefuls would be Cairo, Capetown, Johannesburg, and perhaps dakar.
I wonder if Chicago will offer free rides for homeless people out of the city. Atlanta did it, and it was a GREAT success (read... FAILURE)
London 2012 , We Love You London We Do, We Love You London We Do, We Love You London We Do, Ohhhh London We Love You! Wwweeeeyyy!!!
I'm so ashamed of you! Use the CTA!
haha, i love the CTA for what it is, not that its perfect, but its rather useless for me for work. even metra is pretty useless to me. no easy way to get from Logan Square(ish) to Morton Grove.
I hate London. It's smelly and full of rude people
soo not true... if u go on bank holidays all the rushing around business peeps arnt there and its great!