So New York City avoided the Olympic plague. Good for them. Here's an interesting take from William C. Rhoden on the NYT web site:
Why did these cities climb over one another to get these Games? There is little evidence to suggest that the Games solve long-term unemployment problems. Post-Olympic reports often show that host cities lose money and often wind up with herds of concrete white elephants.
"Each city is different," DeFrantz said. "Sydney wanted to prove that they could do it. For Athens, I think it was a little bit of the fact that this was their event and they hadn't been able to host it since 1896."
The truth is, everyone wants the Games because everyone wants a piece of Olympic booty. If you're Woody Johnson, the Jets' owner, you use the Games as a Trojan Horse to hide your real goal: a new football stadium. If you're Fred Wilpon, the Mets' principal owner, you want the Games to get you out of a dump called Shea Stadium and into a new baseball palace. If you're a developer, you're salivating at the chance to get an Olympic contract.
The British journalist Andrew Jennings has written three scathing critiques of the Olympic movement and the I.O.C. He co-wrote "The Lords of the Rings" and wrote "The New Lords of the Rings" and "The Great American Swindle" about the Salt Lake City scandal.
"One of the frequently uniting factors of all these bids, for all these cities is a small group of people who wish to get richer than they already are or have jobs for even longer," Jennings said yesterday by telephone from England.
"Whichever city wins tomorrow - there's seven years' work for that lot. The unifying factor is self-interest by property speculators."
In the wake of stricter guidelines, the new lobbying strategy was to wow the committee members with glamour and power.
I think we've stumbled on a new Olympic motto:
If you can't bribe 'em, seduce 'em.
I think you can substitute just about any other BS development scheme in here and it would be just as valid. Maglev? Stadiums?
Yep.
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