Boston 2020 Olympics

ant8904 said:
...Boston will be stronger aiming high and failing then not aiming at all. The bar still needs to be kept high if Boston ever hopes to reach that height.
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Great quote about the city and success in general, I do say.
 
ant8904 said:
but Boston will be stronger aiming high and failing then not aiming at all. The bar still needs to be kept high if Boston ever hopes to reach that height.
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"Shoot for the moon! Even if you miss, you'll land among the stars!"

"You miss 100% of the shots you never take!"

I could motivate people for a living.
 
Or make millions selling posters to K-12 teachers throughout the nation.
 
Sounds like it will take alot more than a quality bid to get the Olympics back in the US anytime soon . . .

Chicago never had a chance
IOC-USOC rift doomed ?16 bid
By John Powers, Globe Staff | October 13, 2009

Chicago?s stunning first-round loss in the voting for the 2016 Games was all about the deteriorating relationship between the US Olympic Committee and the International Olympic Committee and the lack of any American influence in the five-ringed world, despite all the dollars which sustain the Olympic family. The US hasn?t had an IOC president since Avery Brundage retired in 1972, has nobody on the 15-member executive committee, and no president of any Olympic sports federation.

?We don?t have any political capital,?? says USOC chairman Larry Probst, who only has been on the job for a year. ?We don?t have leverage.??

Their foreign colleagues treat the Americans like the obnoxious rich kid who is tolerated because he picks up the tab. The USOC?s internal squabbling and revolving-door chief executives (six in nine years) have made the committee appear unstable and vulnerable to power plays, like the IOC?s push to reduce the USOC?s cut from American TV fees (12.75 percent) and global marketing revenues (20 percent), which will jump from roughly $300 million to $450 million during this quadrennium.

Negotiations on that issue were postponed until after the 2016 vote but they?ll be back on the table soon, and with Probst and acting CEO Stephanie Streeter both under fire from the USOC?s domestic sports bodies the timing couldn?t be worse. Although the board gave both Probst and Streeter votes of confidence last week, Streeter will be stepping down by the year?s end and Probst is being pressured to follow.

The bad blood between the IOC and the USOC goes back at least as far as the 1980 boycott and was worsened by the Salt Lake bidding scandal which cost the IOC a tenth of its membership. Though the USOC had made some progress by hiring Bob Fasulo three years ago as its international relations director and naming Bob Ctvrtlik its vice president for international affairs, repairing the relationship is a long-term challenge.

?I think we still don?t have the horsepower to do the politicking,?? says Ctvrtlik, the former Olympic volleyball gold medalist who served as an IOC member for eight years. ?International engagement takes a lot of time.??

Chicago, which spent four years and $50 million on an excellent bid, ended up the loser in the IOC-USOC skirmish. ?They had a fight long before we got involved,?? said bid leader Pat Ryan, who described their relationship as a ?Hatfield and McCoy deal . . . It was not resolved.??

Until it is, there?s little use in any other American city bidding for the Games. As it is, there probably won?t be a candidate until at least 2022. The USOC isn?t in the chase for the 2018 Winter Games and the choice of Rio de Janeiro makes it highly unlikely the IOC will come back to the same hemisphere for 2020. That race already is shaping up with Istanbul, Budapest, and Delhi expressing interest and Hiroshima and Nagasaki planning a joint bid on a theme of world peace on what would be the 75th anniversary of the atomic bombings.

Why did Chicago manage only 18 of 94 votes in the first round after figuring on at least a couple of dozen? Bloc balloting reckoned several IOC members with Tokyo, regarded as the weakest of the four candidates, lining up enough support to beat Chicago by four votes. ?If we had reached the second round, it would have been a lot different,?? said Ryan. ?But I?m not saying we would have won.?? More surprising than Rio?s victory was its 66-32 gap over Madrid, which matched Beijing?s margin over Toronto for 2008.

The USOC won?t have much time to conduct a search for its next CEO, who ideally will be in place for the Winter Games in February. While the salary is attractive - Streeter reportedly is making $560,000 - there are likely to be few candidates with the background that Probst envisions - experience as a corporate CEO, a background in international sport, multilingual fluency, and willingness to travel extensively overseas.
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Patriots_1228 said:
"Shoot for the moon! Even if you miss, you'll land among the stars!"

"You miss 100% of the shots you never take!"

I could motivate people for a living.
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I sense you are mocking my argument by presenting it as some childish cliche told repeatedly to little children. I do not appreciate that not just on the bid but somehow that statement is a joke in and of itself. If you find that so disagreeable, at least provide an argument like the past posters. At least they show intelligent thought to their opinions rather than resort to mockery.

Now I digress, there's a logical reason to keep in mind that making a bid. A serious bid will force Boston to make commitments that have a good chance lasting even if the bid fails. A bid serious enough to win (and if the above is correct, that means alot), means Boston have to really clean itself up. Even a half-ass bid, but enough to get somewhere will means commitments and introspection for improvements. You can argue Boston in failure could wiggle itself out like it did for the Big Dig, but if it doesn't try, even that scenario wouldn't happen and Boston didn't completely wiggle out of all commitments.

It is unrealistic to expect for Boston to win it, not just the state of Boston, but for so many other factors including the sheer competitiveness of the bidding itself. It is not unrealistic for Boston to bid. Correct me if I'm wrong, but it sound like much of the sentiments is bidding is a waste of time in and of itself. I must disagree.
 
Someone mentioned a chicken or egg argument earlier, I think. This is it.

What comes first? The bid that makes Boston clean up, or does Boston clean up to make a bid? I believe the latter. The fact that the city needs a bid to improve itself proves it, how can the leadership be expected to put together any type of bid if they can't even get the city in shape.

I would like nothing more than to see a comprehensive bid put together for Boston/New England, but it would break my heart to see a half-assed bid that is all that can be expected from the current administration and state of affairs. I want the Olympics to actually happen in Boston, not just a bid. So therefore, I want to pick a year when Boston has a legitimate chance of winning. That year is definitely not 2020.
 
No actually I was reinforcing your arguement [which i agree with] by providing my favorite "quotations" from the walls of my old geometry classroom.

No harm no foul :p
 
ant8904 said:
Either the bid will get Boston to get it act together (though still risk alot of financial issues in the aftermath even done right) and win it or fails, but Boston will be stronger aiming high and failing then not aiming at all. The bar still needs to be kept high if Boston ever hopes to reach that height.
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Haha, Boston is going to need to aim higher than high so that when the NIMBYs complain, the city can lower the expectation and still submit a legitimate bid. [/sarcasm]
 
kennedy said:
Someone mentioned a chicken or egg argument earlier, I think. This is it.

What comes first? The bid that makes Boston clean up, or does Boston clean up to make a bid? I believe the latter. The fact that the city needs a bid to improve itself proves it, how can the leadership be expected to put together any type of bid if they can't even get the city in shape.
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My understanding of cities and bidding for the Olympics, they don't prepare and clean themselves up for years then finally bid seeing themselves all prepared. Perhaps if Boston go into clean up mode by some force (economical, political, etc.) pushing Boston toward a better time, then bid in that time period is one thing, but saying "let's clean ourselves up like we're preparing to host the Olympics" and then bidding years down the road, that not how bidding works. Look at other applicant cities, including the most recent ones like Madrid bid for the 2012 and 2016 and likely will try again. The winners, Rio tried for the 2008, Beijing tried for 2000 before getting the 2008. For most cities, it takes multiple tries. Bidding does not work like the way you are describing.



kennedy said:
I would like nothing more than to see a comprehensive bid put together for Boston/New England, but it would break my heart to see a half-assed bid that is all that can be expected from the current administration and state of affairs. I want the Olympics to actually happen in Boston, not just a bid. So therefore, I want to pick a year when Boston has a legitimate chance of winning. That year is definitely not 2020.
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Boston got a very high chance of failing hall-assed or not. Boston should start improving now, but bid for the open 2020 chance, and if it fails, bid again, rather than wait till the bids start opening for 2028 Olympics (which means waiting till 2018). Again, look at other cities examples, they don't spend 10 years cleaning up then bid.

If that's not enough, think about mass psychology. Which will whip a greater sense of urgency to better the city? Making a bid or making a hypothetical bid 10 years from now.

I understanding that you wish to not just see a bid but an actually Olympics, but that all up to chances. Even your idea of cleaning up for 10 years first won't guarantee us. The best a city hope for is making the best bid it can make. You can argue Boston won't for the 2020 and I have to admit that it is likely true, but Boston is free to try again after and there's will be a greater chance bidding for 2020 and 2024/2028 then just bidding for 2024/2028 for various reason noted above.
 
dshoost88 said:
I wrote a mile-long comment to someone's assertion over at 'skyscraper city' that Miami is a better Olympic host city than Boston (among others). I'm curious to hear what you guys think, so I've attached the link below:

http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showpost.php?p=44638286&postcount=40
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You did very well. Miami has a failing economy due to the housing bubble, like many other city that relied on development. Unfortunately, for the many Americans, people only see Latinos as the only race that makes a city international and culturally diverse. Yet, Boston not only has a large Italian and Irish population, but they also have a large Hispanic and one of the largest Asian population in the East Coast. The large amount of universities also brings international students year round and obviously, Miami would not be able to compete with Boston in the amount of history. That being said, some people are just ignorant.
 
KentXie said:
You did very well. Miami has a failing economy due to the housing bubble, like many other city that relied on development. Unfortunately, for the many Americans, people only see Latinos as the only race that makes a city international and culturally diverse. Yet, Boston not only has a large Italian and Irish population, but they also have a large Hispanic and one of the largest Asian population in the East Coast. The large amount of universities also brings international students year round and obviously, Miami would not be able to compete with Boston in the amount of history. That being said, some people are just ignorant.
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I think you've brought up an interesting stereotype, namely Miami is international only for it's Latino population, which is of course, inaccurate. There should really be no denying Miami's international flavor, it's reputation for nightlife, culture, architecture, it's ability to host large scale events (Superbowl, Art Basel, etc.) and it's international image.

I personally do not see why Boston is more apt to host the Olympics than Miami, even if I'd prefer Boston and New England to do so. Either city would represent the US well on an international stage. Other bid cities, Tulsa and Birmingham, for instance, would not.
 
Wouldn't Boston have a better bet to pursue the Winter Olympics? The competition seems a little less daunting and we have proximity to the necessary facilities and mountains.
 
Concord, NH or Burlington, VT would be better choices (closer to the mountains)
 
^Yeah, but then you're in Concord, NH. Burlington is nice, but I don't think it has the hotels or the facilities to accommodate the tourists. My point is, if Vancouver can do it, maybe Boston can too.
 
Ron Newman said:
Concord, NH or Burlington, VT would be better choices (closer to the mountains)
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I could see Boston being the host city with a secondary area in the Mount Washington Valley which would be perfect for the skiing, snowboarding and biathlon events.

Vancouver is almost two hours from Whistler, which is home to the skiing events (with the exception of the mountain being used for the aerial, freestyle and snowboarding events and that is turning out to be a big, black eye on the games), so a precedent of having the games in a warmer, coastal city with events located in the mountains in the region has been set.

That said, Boston is a full 45 minutes farther from Conway than Vancouver is from Whistler, so that's why I think Boston would make a better venue for a summer Olympics, but I don't think its geography would preclude it from bidding on the winter games. Afterall, the winter games are smaller, require less capital expenditure, and can often make better use of existing infrastructure than the summer games.

Either way, I'd fully support the Olympics being held in Boston.

"The Winter Olympics have twice been in tiny Lake Placid, NY"

Yes, but things have changed just a bit since 1932. Even since 1980. Vancouver is expecting about 5 times as many athletes as what participated in the 1980 Lake Placid games.
 
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