GenerationW
Senior Member
I was ecstatic.Do people remember Toronto's reaction when we lost the bid?
I was ecstatic.Do people remember Toronto's reaction when we lost the bid?
Following the first two failed bids and the loud opposition that accompanied them, a logical step before a possible third bid would be a referendum. Therefore, we'll probably get a third bid with no referendum.Though that's assuming that we really want the games here ...
I've outlined this in the Pan-Am thread, but profitability and the economic spin-offs of an Olympic games are near impossible to measure.
What do you know, it's not even close to being near impossible to measure!Found these on Foreign Policy:
It more than seems like your words don't stand up to what's there in black and white (and red and blue and green.....).Seems like a grandiose generalization to me.
I'd like to see the report those are based on. What's included? What's not? What about tax revenues and economic spin-offs? If you're basing your argument on this chart alone, you're fighting a losing battle. I'm beating a dead horse here, but I'll say it again: it's impossible to determine, compare and contrast Olympic spending, revenue and benefits, etc. Also, what does an Olympics have to do with National GDP growth? I don't buy their argument that it's based on "idle infrastructure and showboating." Seems like a grandiose generalization to me.
I didn't bother reading all 3 pages, but I just want to say that Rio deserved the bid more than any other city since Beijing, and I'm glad they got it.
If I were a betting man, I'd say that no city could have less of a chance at getting a shot at the Olympics than Toronto right now. What other country of 30 million people would be graced with the Olympics 4 times in its Post WW2 history? And what are the odds that our small country will host the Olympics twice within 10 years, and host a summer Olympics, at that?
Especially with all the emerging BRIC cities, each very eager to roll up their sleeves and sink shovels into the dirt for infrastructure projects on a scale that Toronto simply cannot comprehend, I think the odds of seeing a summer Olympics in North America - let alone Canada - is slim to none over the next 30 years. The fact that Chicago got trounced is very telling.
My guess is Istanbul 2020. They're another longtime contender, they would probably have European backing and infrastructure funding and it would bring the Summer Olympics to the Islamic world (population 1 billion and counting) for the very first time.
GDP is relevant because it includes all of the secondary benefits you talk of. It includes government spending, it includes spending possibly induced by an activity but not recorded on its' statements and so forth. If Olympics really had some kind of positive effects on an economy that couldn't be measured directly, they should be represented in GDP, which is the sum of all economic activity. If Olympics frequently result in a GDP decline, that is quite relevant.
Interestingly, the games have only twice been in a Spanish-speaking country (Barcelona & Mexico) and never in Spanish-speaking South America despite three past bids from Buenos Aires. Even with the 2016 Olympics, they chose the only non-Spanish speaking country in all of South America, though its most populous (this is Rio's second bid for the Olympics).The IOC would take the City of God over South Side Chicago any day. Also, it becomes a feel-good story. The games are finally coming to South America.