Attending an Olympic Games should be on every sport fan's bucket list. The Olympic Games are wonderful, provided it's not in your background. And certainly not if it's in Dallas.
Nothing against Dallas, but this potential bid to bring the Olympic games to North Texas in 2024 has doom written all over it.
The region has quite a few of the necessary venues to host the games; it would need to build a new main venue, though. But it would be fun to see Governor Rick Perry, who you just know will be the Gov. even then, light the Olympic Flame with a flame thrower.
The list is a bit of a joke. Tulsa, Oklahoma is on this list. Also on this list - San Antonio/Houston/Dallas. Not kidding. That's what it says. The USOC may as well contact "Chicago/Lincoln/Portland", too.
The U.S. may eventually host a Summer Games again, but it's not going to be in Dallas. The reason is 1996.
In '96, the Olympics were conned/swayed by Atlanta exec Billy Payne into bringing their prized toy to north Georgia. Payne convinced the International Olympic Committee that he would not only minimize the costs, but it would be profitable.
Payne pimped and whored those Games out to any corporate sponsor willing to buy a sign anywhere in the Atlanta area that summer. The problem was it didn't feel very Olympic-y, with all of that Coca Cola signage in your sights up to including a visit to the potty. Atlanta, like Dallas, was far too spread out and not pedestrian friendly.
The feeling was that after those Olympics, which were fun despite the problems, the IOC would never again return to a "second tier" city such as Atlanta, or Dallas.
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"The problem was it didn't very Olympic-y, with all of that Coca Cola signage in your sights up to including a visit to the potty."
Leave a word out there, Mac?
Posted by: Andy | 02/21/2013 at 12:58 PM
Yes indeed I did. Thank you for the catch.
Posted by: The Big Mac Blog | 02/21/2013 at 01:03 PM
Your opinion piece fails to mention arguably the most important aspect of any olympics - COST. The cost to stage the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta was $1.8 billion, but due to the "gaudy and unolympic-y" (use the thesaurus much Mac?) corporate sponsorship the city actually profited $10 million, which is incredible for such an enormous event. Hey Mac, can you tell us how much the London olympics profited? The overall economic impact of the Atlanta olympics was $5.1 billion. By that measure, the 96' olympics was a smashing success.
Posted by: jack | 02/23/2013 at 09:40 AM
HAHA... Just more Fort Worth jealousy!
Keep looking at the stars Fort Worth, because you'll never be one.
Posted by: Ronnie | 02/25/2013 at 01:44 PM