California
Related: About this forumSan Francisco puts in chips for 2024 Olympics (xpost from GD)
http://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/San-Francisco-puts-in-chips-for-2024-Olympics-5905458.phpPlenty of uncertainty remains, however, including whether improvements to housing, transportation and other infrastructure are worth the cost of hosting the Games....
The 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing are estimated to have cost $44 billion. Last winters Games in Sochi, Russia, may have cost even more. Last month, Norway withdrew its bid for Oslo to host the 2022 Winter Games, following at least four other cities that dropped out. Munich was considering a bid for that Olympics, but decided against it after voters rejected the idea in a referendum.
It looks more and more like a boondoggle, said Andrew Zimbalist, economics professor at Smith College in Massachusetts and author of the upcoming book Circus Maximus: The Economic Gamble Behind Hosting the Olympics and World Cup.
We may need to take a page out of Boston's book on this one.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10025839483
msongs
(67,478 posts)Brother Buzz
(36,490 posts)If we can get a second Velodrome built in the Bay Area, a world class indoor track built in, say, the North Bay, I'm all for it.
Movers and shakers in Marin county are already scheming and scamming toward that goal.
Hoppy
(3,595 posts)That cost the state a shitload of $$$.
NV Whino
(20,886 posts)Auggie
(31,226 posts)petronius
(26,608 posts)more in benefits, income, and new infrastructure than would be tossed into the money-pit the modern Olympics have become. My suggestion would be to set aside half the amount the Olympics would cost, burn half of that in a great big bonfire, and use the rest for useful new stuff - we'd probably still come out way ahead...
Lordquinton
(7,886 posts)I can only imagine which communities they would destroy to get it done.
LeftyMom
(49,212 posts)Between the professional sports teams, Cal and Stanford, you'd have facilities for damn near every summer event that were ready to go or needed minor upgrades. There are already metric craptons of hotels. Any transportation upgrades would continue to be of use after the events, and are sorely needed in any case.
They're a bad idea for places that have to build stadiums and golf courses and hotels and blah blah from scratch, but the Bay Area already has all of that stuff, often in duplicates, and most of it is world class.