Snowboarding
Denver Wants the 2018 Olympics?
about the 2018 Olympics recently, pointing out that Denver has hosted
virtually every Winter Olympic sport except the luge and bobsled.
Whether Denver gets to bid, however, is up to the United States Olympic
Committee. In the meantime, the city is gearing up to host a slew of
“top tier” winter sporting events through 2011, courtesy of becoming a
USOC “Community Partner City”.
Bidding on the Olympics is a funny thing; it creates extremely
polarized camps, and the financial success of the Olympics is never
guaranteed. We’ve had a couple of run-ins with Olympic bids up here in
Toronto; I remember the first (for the 1996 Summer Olympics) was
ultimately thwarted by a coalition of groups concerned that the money
spent on the Olympics could be better spent elsewhere. Things got
extremely heated between the “yes” and “no” sides. Our second bid, this
time
for the 2010 Olympics, was more tame (tamer?), but we were
ultimately beat out by China.
So is landing the Olympics ultimately worth it? It’s tough to say.
We’ve had mixed results
up here: the Montreal Games are remembered as a financial debacle (and
even scared away cities from bidding, according to this Wikipedia entry),
but
the 1988 Calgary Games were profitable. Regardless of financial performance, though, both games led to lasting
infrastructure investments that ultimately helped each city. And I
think Winter Olympic hosts are doubly lucky, because they get all sorts
of facilities that attract winter athletes - skating ovals, bobsled
tracks, etc. I know this has turned Calgary into a serious training
ground for our Olympians, and soon Whistler will join the club.
Discussion
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