Boston gets 2024 U.S. Summer Olympic bid

I don't think the IOC was as pissed about that in Atlanta (LA was the same) as it was that organization was a clusterfuck.

 

That's pretty much on the nose. I coordinated our coverage of the Atlanta Games, and part of that meant understanding the inner mechanics of ACOG. While the city was a gracious host (for the most part), the governing organization was a mess. The real takeaway was that the IOC simply wants money -- while it prefers a government guarantee, it doesn't much care how it's generated.

 

Did I miss it or is no one discussing Boston's mayor's decision to sign the USOC agreement to prohibit city employees from badmouthing the USOC, IOC, or the bid?

Personally, I just can't understand the mayor's or the USOC's defense/ justification for having that clause in a binding contract. Anyone else?

 

Boston bid "over"
Boston Olympic bid is ‘over,’ official says - Metro - The Boston Globe

 

Gee's going to be pissed.

 

What a waste of time that turned out to be. You'd think there would be some kind of data gathering / polling to see how much state and local support you have before going all this distance and THEN pulling the plug.

 

There has been polling since day one, and ever since the February from hell, it showed support within the city at about 40 percent. Before that, it was over 50. The collapse of public transportation that month poisoned the well. In addition, the organizers did nothing to build support from the bottom up, confusing endorsements from pols with real support. But what happened here is that the mayor told the USOC that whoever held the bag for the inevitable cost overruns, it wouldn't be the city. So the USOC pulled the plug rather than try to carry the bid's water with the Feds. Too bad. Ryan wrote a very good column in .the Globe last week saying that holding the Olympics would be great fun, but that the Boston organizers were fuckups. This assessment is hard to dispute.

 

Great fun seems like a great reason to waste a shit load of taxpayer dollars.

Hookers and blow would be far less expensive.

 

I stand by my call that there won't be another U.S. Summer Games in 50 years.

I won't be around to see it, but if any of you youngsters are still on the Psychonet in 2065, remember that I said so.

 

It made absolutely no sense for the USOC to choose Boston in the first place. LA should have gotten the nod. Hell, Dallas would have been a better choice.

 

Dallas in July and August would be like holding a Games in Boston in February -- this February. The one city that has the facilities (including, most of all, a stadium already used for track and field) that has never shown any interest, but would be a good candidate is Philadelphia. I might add that in my belief, money spent on an increase in human happiness is not waste. Not as much as the F-35 anyway.