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2016 Summer Olympics: Philadelphia?

10K views 29 replies 14 participants last post by  xzmattzx 
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the u.s. olympic committee is in philadelphia looking around to see if philly would be able to get the city ready if they get the olympic bid. it's not an official visit for the u.s. nomination, but this wil determine how ready the city is.

one thing i especially like about the bid is that delaware has a very good chance of hosting some sport if philly were to get the olympics. an olympic event being held in delaware? not bad for a state that's the butt of many jokes.

here are some articles on philly's potential bid for the 2016 olympics.


Olympics 2016: It's a chance to dream


BILLY PAYNE told the story about how he first floated the then-preposterous idea of bringing the Summer Olympics to Atlanta. Sitting in a restaurant in Aspen, Colo., across the table from a business partner, he mentioned his idea.

"Sure thing, Billy," his friend said. "Have another beer."

Eleven or so years later, in 1996, they no doubt were toasting Payne's energy and vision to what has become the last Summer Games to be held on American soil. With that history as a backdrop, a delegation from the United States Olympic Committee comes calling on Philadelphia today. It's part of a five-city visit that began with Houston yesterday and continues in Chicago tomorrow, with a West Coast swing through San Francisco and Los Angeles next week.

For those excited by the possibility of the region putting its hand up for the grandest of all international events, it's a chance to dream about a day that few American cities have experienced. Only four Summer Games have been held in this country: 1904 in St. Louis, 1932 and 1984 in Los Angeles, and those Atlanta Games 10 years ago.

It's also a watershed moment for Joe Torsella and his working panel, who have been assessing the region's strengths and commitment since last spring. To almost all they've been a shadow, conducting their business quietly at the request of the USOC.

Today, they get their first shot in the sun in what will be a private, 2-hour afternoon meeting at an unannounced site. That will be followed by a press briefing and rally at 5:30 in Love Park, which should provide some specifics about what's next in the process for the city. Leading the USOC party will be Peter Ueberroth, the organization's new chairman, who's best known for making a $250 million profit at the LA Games in '84 before successfully moving into the job of baseball commissioner. USOC president Jim Scherr and vice president, international Bob Ctvrtlik will join him. Although the briefing will be public, the landing won't be: There's a USOC ban on any airport welcomes.

Mayor Street will lead what likely will be a 10-person group, gathered from the public and private sector, including at least one Olympian from the region. They will make a presentation, no doubt pitching everything from the facilities (the sports complex and Fairmount Park) to the recent successes handling highly publicized events (Live 8 last summer and the Republican National Convention in 2000).

But they won't have to worry about filling the entire 2-hour session because USOC is going to lay out its guidelines for bid cities. The USOC is looking for partners in the broadest sense, and that's part of the message it will bring. It expects cities not only to have the necessary infrastructure, but also the willingness to adopt a united front among city, county, state and federal officials, plus a strong working relationship with the USOC.

USOC is delivering this same message to leaders from all five cities.

After visiting the five cities, USOC will spend an unspecified amount of time deciding whether to bid for 2016. That could be a few weeks or several months. USOC could select a couple of cities and let those compete, as it has done in the past, or simply land on one.

"It will not bear any semblance to the past system," Ueberroth said last night, speaking from Houston. "Not that it was bad. We've just decided to do it differently."

Something new is what best describes Philadelphia's interest in making a bid. In addition to LA holding two Olympics, Houston and San Francisco both were involved in the bidding for the 2012 Games. San Francisco finished runner-up for the national bid to New York, which seems to be on the outside looking in on this process.

Meanwhile, this region will take its first crack at the Games in decades, since John B. Kelly reportedly assembled a modest proposal for the 1948 Games. And, indeed, you can see why local supporters are confident the Games of the XXXI Olympiad could be more than a pipe dream:

• Let's play ball: Who can argue with a region where so much is already in place? The sports complex offers a great opportunity to consolidate, and the Navy Yard offers the kinds of acreage that could handle an Olympic Village and track and field stadium. Then there's Franklin Field and the Palestra, a number of universities with new facilities, plus the Convention Center and Fairmount Park. And what better test of an Olympic cyclist or triathlete than the Manayunk Wall?

• A TV network's dream: With sites recently in Nagano, Sydney, Athens and Turin, and bound for Beijing in 2008 and London in 2012, Olympics viewers have learned to do two things: Buy TiVo or learn to enjoy events on taped delay. An East Coast venue would do wonders for live TV and a subsequently bigger audience.

• Tolerable summers: OK, so the temperature does occasionally creep into the 90s. But what's the last hot spell you remember? Overall, you can't argue with a climate that's accommodating to everything from soccer to cycling to track and field.

• Great track record: OK, it's not quite on the grand scale of the Olympics, but supporters obviously were cheered by the overall grades the city received for handling Live 8 and the Republican National Convention. Both serve as a springboard to this interest in a bid for the Summer Games.

• It's Philly's time: With the 2012 Games going to London and the 2020 and the 2024 Games seemingly bound for cities in Africa and South America, the 2016 Games seem to be the USA's to lose.

New York is pretty much out of the running. So is Baltimore-Washington. That leaves this region, at least on paper, holding up well against the other interested cities. Survey the region 10 years ago and you'd probably find a majority, ahem, standing around dousing any passion for the flame with multiple reasons why this city shouldn't bid. Ten years from now, that might be the case again. But the survey commissioned by Torsella's panel last year, which found 83 percent of the respondents in favor of making a bid, seems to indicate a swell of optimism that runs counter to the perceived general demeanor of the populace.

Payne talked about the same skepticism he encountered in Atlanta as he singlehandedly created the momentum that led to that bid. It was a nonstop effort that put a dent in his health (he had a triple bypass in 1993) but not his sense of humor. He told doctors he'd stop showing up at work at 4 in the morning; instead he promised to arrive at 5.

"Guess that means about seven more heart surgeries from now," he told Sports Illustrated back then, "I'll be workin' a normal day."
http://www.philly.com/mld/dailynews/news/local/14533986.htm


Yo! We do things the Philly way

THE U.S. OLYMPIC Committee meets with Philadelphia officials today to talk about the conditions the city must meet if we're to have a shot at hosting the 2016 Summer Olympics.

I say we dive through every hoop the committee flings in the air, since hosting the games would be one of the coolest things this city has ever done.

(Not to mention that I could make $10,000 renting my rowhouse to out-of-towners. Sweet.) Think of the international profile the games would bring our humble town - the sophistication and prestige!

Of course, it would also bring traffic detours of galactic proportions. And construction nightmares for years prior to the first javelin throw.

And - eek! - foreigners.

Still, these are leapable hurdles, so long as we envision this thing as Live 8 to the 100th power and gear up accordingly.

It's the unanticipated problems, though, that worry me - the kind that arise when outsiders' expectations bump against the realities of Philly's small-town quirks and indictment-worthy traditions.

Herewith, then, is a short list of conditions that Philly ought to require the U.S. Olympic Committee to meet, if we're to collaborate successfully in pulling off this athletic block party.


We honor the pay-to-play system. Contractors should pad their bids accordingly.

Save yourselves the shock, the outrage and the eventual phone call to the feds when you suspect that money intended to build an indoor Olympic cycling track has also paid for a pol's in-ground pool at the Jersey shore. You call it theft? We call it the Philly Tax. Contractors can save everybody a lot of trouble if they just build it into their cost estimates.

Advise all Olympics personnel directors that we support job patronage in all forms.

Philadelphia's layabout siblings, hottie mistresses and no-show employees pine for a decent paycheck as much as little Kimmie Meissner yearned for the gold in Torino. Your participation in the 2016 Olympic Games will "help us help them."

We don't like to bring up the MOVE thing, and we'd appreciate it if you wouldn't, either.

At some point, a key Olympic stakeholder will note worriedly, "Whoa, whoa, whoa - hold on a sec! Isn't Philly the city that dropped a bomb on a neighborhood and burned it to the ground?" Please, that is so 1985. Get over it. We have.

We have no "celebrity scene," so bring your own.

In this town, a brush with fabulousness means you saw an Action News meteorologist buying soft-pretzel bites at the Franklin Mills movie-plex. (By 2016, though, Donald Trump may have built a high-glamour slots parlor here, so Carrot Top sightings could be commonplace.)

The Philly accent is no worse than the Big Apple's.

We flatten our vowels, mangle our pronunciations, and when we talk, it sounds like we're forming the words around a mouthful of turkey sandwich. When New Yorkers talk this way, they're considered "charming." When we do, we're considered "stupid." If you cut us a break on this, we'll be so grateful, we won't bore you with tales of how we were an extra in Rocky VI.

Please get it straight: It's not the heat, it's the humidity.

And it's going to make Philly's outdoors Olympics events a living hell. If global warming worsens between now and 2016, we predict wet and toasty on the playing fields that summer, with scattered heatstroke in the stands. Double-pack the Igloo.

Of course, I jest. A little.

The truth is, hosting the Olympics could be a pain, and - this being Philly - it might not come off without at least one smack-your-forehead-in-frustration moment that embarrasses us on the world stage.

Remember the July 4th near-beheading of Sandra Day O'Connor by that falling beam at the National Constitution Center?

But, if the U.S. Olympic Committee does pick us - and if Philadelphia promises to build an entire Olympic Village without coming to blows over the installation of no-flush urinals - the 2016 Summer Olympics could be an extravaganza that does us all proud.

Who knows? I may even stay in town for the games - or at least long enough to help my fleeced houseguests figure out how to work the bedroom air-conditioner.
http://www.philly.com/mld/dailynews/news/local/14533984.htm


WE'VE GOT WHAT IT TAKES
HERE'S HOPING THE OLYMPIC COMMITTEE LIKES WHAT IT SEES


PETER V. UEBERROTH need look no further.

Philadelphia is the ideal city to host the 2016 Summer Olympic Games.

Ueberroth, chairman of the U.S. Olympic Committee, and other USOC representatives are expected in town today. They will spend a couple of hours with organizers eager to bring the Olympics here.

The process has just begun. Ueberroth and company will discuss the rules a city must follow to bid on the games and "learn how difficult the assignment is going to be," he said.

The USOC also plans to visit Houston, Los Angeles (hey, that city has hosted two Olympics already), Chicago and San Francisco before it decides whether to put in a bid with the International Olympic Committee.

The IOC will announce the winning city in 2009. The USOC wants to have a candidate by year's end.

Philadelphia is in a culturally abundant, easy-to-navigate region. It contains venues that can be used as sporting sites, and transportation infrastructure to host the games.

Plus, our city stages major events with seeming ease. Of course, Olympic logistics are far more complex than for a GOP convention, or Live Aid and Live 8 concerts. Because of our experience, Live 8 came off with little advance notice; imagine what could be done with years of preparation fueled by civic pride and enthusiasm.

But pride and enthusiasm shouldn't overshadow pragmatism and the daily requirements needed to run a city. Philadelphia has broken through the second-class-city mindset. Housing prices are booming, the night-life scene is rocking, public schools are making progress. Slot parlors - for good or ill - will be in place soon.

As a city, we're on the map.

So though "feeling good" about ourselves might be important, it shouldn't be what drives us. It's the long-term benefits that we should remember: To present the United States in the best light, bolster established buildings and facilities, construct venues that will enhance the region's future.

Maybe the Navy Yard for housing; the Linc for soccer; the expanded (we hope) Convention Center for whatever. A track stadium and swimming pool will have to be built. All can be put to good use once the Olympics are over.

Pete, Philly can handle it.
http://www.philly.com/mld/dailynews/14533993.htm

 
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