The article cites anonymous IOC sources and others closely associated with the Olympic movement. To be honest, no new topics or subjects are reported in this story, but it's still reassuring to hear that the same thoughts we've read about are still prevalent.
The main arguments are
Obama's support for Chicago's bid may be too much for other bids to overcome:
To vote out Chicago would mean they had snubbed the most powerful person in the worldThe argument for and against Tokyo:
Tokyo has the experience uniquely of the candidates of already hosting the Games - albeit over 40 years ago - but still appear to suffer from the image of Asia having hosted them in 2008 with the hugely successful Beijing Games and other major events also seemingly poised to be hosted on that continentThe article didn't really make much of an argument for or against Madrid, but the biggest reason as to why it wouldn't be there is because London is hosting 2012 and they do like to rotate throughout continents (so the thinking is they would want to avoid Europe in back-to-back summer Olympics). However, they do have the most infrastructure (stadiums and transportation) already created in the competition.
In regards to Rio:
Rio certainly has the passion and the lure of being the first South American city to host the Games but the feeling still persists in some members eyes that Brazil will just have come out of hosting the World Cup in 2014 and they don't want to be seen as one Asian member put it 'the dessert after the main course'.
2 comments:
Chicago has two major disadvantages.
1. The horrible crime rate. Too many parts of the City are open shooting galleries.
2. The inferior public transportation system. For example, Madrid does have high speed rail service from the airport to downtown.
I hope Chicago does get the Olympics. But if it does not, I hope that these facts are clearly stated as the reason it did not get is. That may put a fire under the appropriate politicians to finally do something about the problem.
Dude,
1. The crime rate is not bad. Seriously. Chicago has gotten insanely safe over the past few years. Particularly in areas where gangs and/or drug wars aren't being fought. Yes, muggers targer Rush & Division and Boystown to mug drunks, but that doesn't make Chicago's crime issues anywhere as serious as Rio's.
2. Public transportation might be the biggest reason why Chicago might land it. The framework is there and funding to fill in the holes in the public transportation might actually make the CTA golden. Particularly because it's being used to fund/expand the south side where IIT lands.
3. IIT isn't talked about enough. It actually has some fantastic aspects to it and if invested in and/or developed might develop to compete with the more competitive tech universities like Georgia Tech (which incidentally reminds me of IIT in how Atlanta's gentrification influenced its development).
Post a Comment