Jax contacted about hosting 2024 summer olympics

[duvaldude08]

Just for us to even been on their minds is a good sign. The hotel requirement is nowhere near what was required for the superbowl. Given 2024 is about a decade away, do you think we have a shot?

Jacksonville invited to make Olympic bid
City among 35 cities asked about interest in hosting games
Published On: Feb 20 2013 10:30:51 AM EST  Updated On: Feb 20 2013 11:22:37 AM EST
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JACKSONVILLE, Fla. - Jacksonville is among 35 cities contacted by the U.S. Olympic Committee to gauge its interest in hosting the 2024 Summer Games.

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The USOC sent letters Tuesday to Mayor Alvin Brown, as well as mayors in Orlando, Miami and 32 other cities, to see if they would be interested in a potential bid to bring the summer games back to the country for the first time since 1996.

"We would like to begin having discussions with interested cities about possible bid themes as well as the infrastructure, financial resources and other assets that are required to host the Games," wrote USOC chief executive Scott Blackmun.

Following failed bids by New York and Chicago for the 2012 and 2016 Olympics, the USOC is taking a measured approach before moving ahead with a new campaign and wants to be sure it has a good chance of winning.


"This letter does not guarantee that the USOC will bid for the 2024 Games, but rather is an initial step in evaluating a potential bid," the committee said.


In addition to the three Florida cities, the other cities that received the letter were Phoenix; San Jose, Calif.; Los Angeles; Sacramento; San Diego; San Francisco; Denver; Washington; Atlanta; Chicago; Indianapolis; Baltimore; Detroit; Minneapolis; St. Louis; Las Vegas; New York; Boston; Rochester; Charlotte, N.C.; Columbus, Ohio; Tulsa, Okla.; Portland, Ore.; Philadelphia; Pittsburgh; Memphis; Nashville and Davidson County; Austin, Tex.; Dallas; Houston; San Antonio; and Seattle.

The USOC letter sought to remind the mayors of the huge undertaking involved in hosting the Olympics. Blackmun noted that the operating costs would be in excess of $3 billion, a figure that does not include venue construction and infrastructure costs.

The city would also require 45,000 hotel rooms, an Olympic village for 16,500 athletes and officials, an international airport and a workforce of up to 200,000, the letter said.

When hosting the Super Bowl in 2005, the city of Jacksonville brought in cruise ships to provide 7,000 additional rooms to satisfy the National Football League requirements of 100,000.

The U.S. hasn't hosted the Summer Olympics since Atlanta in 1996; Salt Lake City was the last American city to stage the Winter Games in 2002.

The USOC has also said it would consider whether to bid for the 2026 Winter Olympics, although the bigger and more prestigious Summer Games would seem to be the preference.

Los Angeles, Dallas and Tulsa, Okla., had already expressed interest in hosting the 2024 Games. New York, Chicago and San Francisco have either bid or expressed interest in bidding in the past and could also get in the mix.


New York finished fourth in the international bidding for the 2012 Olympics, which went to London. Chicago suffered a stinging first-round exit in the vote for the 2016 Games, which were awarded to Rio de Janeiro.


Chicago's defeat was blamed partly on the revenue-sharing feud between the USOC and IOC. The two sides have since resolved the dispute and signed a new agreement that clears the way for a U.S. bid. USOC leaders have also worked hard to improve the committee's standing in the international Olympic community.


"Now more than ever, we need to use the power of the Olympic and Paralympic Games to encourage our youth to be active and engaged in sport," Blackmun wrote.


Other cities around the world that have expressed interest in bidding for the 2024 Games include Paris; Rome; Doha; Dubai; and Durban, South Africa. The IOC vote on the 2024 Games will be in 2017.


The USOC is skipping the bidding for the 2020 Olympics. The three candidates for those games are Istanbul, Madrid and Tokyo, with the IOC to vote Sept. 7 in Buenos Aires, Argentina.


The USOC said Tuesday it has two and a half years to decide whether to submit a 2024 bid and would do so in an "economically efficient way."


While New York and Chicago were selected by the USOC after a domestic bid process that cost up to $10 million, the USOC said it would embark on any new bid through "a thoughtful but more efficient process."


"The games have had a transformative impact on a number of host cities, including Barcelona, Beijing and London," Blackmun said.

[Dog Walker]

Excuse me while I fall down on the ground and roll around laughing hysterically.

[ben says]

Excuse me while I fall down on the ground and roll around laughing hysterically.

+1

[Wacca Pilatka]

I'm as pro-Jacksonville and optimistic about the city as it gets, but even much larger cities with much more in the way of transportation and mass transit infrastructure have a very hard time handling the Olympics.  They are a logistical nightmare.  Hotels are the least of the problems.  To have Jacksonville and cities like Memphis, Tulsa, Rochester, and Sacramento on this list is bizarre to say the least.  Few of the cities out of that list of 35 could pull off an Olympics.

Tulsa actually expressed interest in hosting???  I like Tulsa and don't mean to degrade it or Oklahoma in any way, but that's insane.

[copperfiend]

I'm as pro-Jacksonville and optimistic about the city as it gets, but even much larger cities with much more in the way of transportation and mass transit infrastructure have a very hard time handling the Olympics.  They are a logistical nightmare.  Hotels are the least of the problems.  To have Jacksonville and cities like Memphis, Tulsa, Rochester, and Sacramento on this list is bizarre to say the least.  Few of the cities out of that list of 35 could pull off an Olympics.

Tulsa actually expressed interest in hosting???  I like Tulsa and don't mean to degrade it or Oklahoma in any way, but that's insane.

The process of even having that many cities spend time and money on something they have no chance on is just dumb. There is probably only (at most) 10 metro areas in this country logistically capable of hosting the Games.

[tufsu1]

Tampa and Orlando put in a joint bid about 10 years ago for the 2012 games...they didn't even make the first cut of US cities....so the answer is No!

[KenFSU]

CNN - Olympics is a Very Risky Business

NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- Hosting the Olympic Games is a lot like throwing the world's largest -- and most expensive -- party.

The costs are legion. Massive new infrastructure projects must be planned, funded and constructed. Security forces are mobilized, with costs ranging into the billions of dollars. Thousands of hotel rooms must be built to house athletes and tourists.

And most of it happens on the taxpayer dime.

Politicians have long justified the outsized expenses levied on cities and citizens by arguing that ticket sales, construction jobs and increased tourism outweigh the costs.

Elected officials often seek to bolster their argument by commissioning forward-looking economic studies that predict huge economic benefits for the host city and country.

But most independent economists say the real cost of the Olympics is more complicated to determine -- and certainly not as rosy as politicians portray.

"There is very little evidence to suggest hosting the Olympics provides much of an economic benefit," said Victor Matheson, a professor of economics at College of the Holy Cross.

The two most recent Summer Games had drastically different outcomes. The Olympics in Beijing in 2008 were widely considered a success, mainly because it helped the nation show the world how much it had emerged as an economic power.

"Beijing did it as an advertisement. They got tremendous value, because they didn't care about the cost. It was like buying a ton of television ads," said Mark Rosentraub, a professor of sports management at the University of Michigan.

But Athens in 2004 was a disaster. Experts say that Greece built too many hotel rooms and fell victim to the hopes that the Olympics would lead to longer-term gains thanks to tourism.

Matheson said that forecasts produced to justify the Olympics often underestimate potential spending overruns, and rely on models that don't accurately capture unintended costs.

"I would say these folks are really good at adding and multiplying, but not very good at subtracting," Matheson said.

Stefan Szymanski, another professor of sports management at the University of Michigan, said that politicians feel pressured to link the Olympics to economic gains because taxpayers bear the cost of putting on the games.

"The government wants to say that not only are we going to have a good time with this event, but it's also going to make us rich," Szymanski said. "And that's just not true."

Perhaps the best example of the long-term costs associated with putting on the Olympics is Montreal, host city of the 1976 Summer Games.

Prior to the games, the Canadian city's mayor, Jean Drapeau, followed the course of most elected leaders who court the games, saying that "the Olympics can no more lose money than a man can have a baby."

He was wrong. Mismanagement and gross cost overruns left the city's citizens with a $1.5 billion debt that took three decades to erase. The final payment on the debt was made in 2006.

By that time, the local citizenry had turned the name of the city's unused Olympic stadium-turned baseball park, the Big O, into a homonym: the Big O-W-E.

Montreal's experience went a long way toward scaring off potential host cities for 1984, and only one municipality -- Los Angeles -- made a bid for those Olympic Games.

Because of low demand, Matheson said, Los Angeles was able to dictate terms to the International Olympic Committee. It pursued a new model that relied heavily on private financing.

The city was also able to use existing stadiums as sports venues, erasing one of the largest costs associated with hosting the Olympics. The result? Profit.

Rosentraub said there are two ways to turn the games into a financial success.

The first is to adopt the Los Angeles model, and rely on existing facilities to host events. The second is to use the Olympics as an impetus to build long-term infrastructure projects that would be needed with or without the games.

It is probably too early to say whether London will be a financial success.

Because the city is already a popular tourist destination, Rosentraub said London shouldn't expect much of an economic boost from tourism.

"Some cities really buy this tourism argument," Rosentraub said. "But we have studies up the wazoo showing that it will never happen."

And costs are already mounting. The British government has raised its initial $4 billion cost estimate to nearly $15 billion. Some estimates project an even higher cost.

But London is also accomplishing some major infrastructure goals, including projects designed to give the long-suffering East End neighborhood a facelift.

The final verdict? "London probably won't lose too much," Rosentraub said.

Szymanski, meanwhile, expressed dismay that politicians continue to tout the Olympics as an economic boost, and not just a great sporting event.

"I think the Olympics is and should be a great sporting event, but it is not and should not be considered a major economic event," Szymanski said.

"It's a lot like having a party," he added. "It's a good time but it doesn't make you rich."

http://money.cnn.com/2012/07/30/news/economy/olympics-cost/index.htm

[tufsu1]

sure but that's because they don't have an NFL team....Tampa has hosted many

and the joint hosting was centered on Tampa....Orlando was part of the bid because of the international draw and all the hotel rooms...and of course high speed rail would have connected the two cities

[Julian]

USA Today has an opinion about Jacksonville...... http://www.usatoday.com/story/gameon/2013/02/19/35-american-cities-host-olympics/1931177/

[avonjax]

It's an honor just to be nominated.

[Adam W]

twelve years out is a good enough time to get a sensible transit system put into place and to encourage infill development.  I was surprised what the Jax team put together to get the super bowl, considering the state of affairs back in 1993, which was twelve years prior.

I don't know. I'm not knocking Jacksonville at all, but London had 7 years to get ready for the 2012 Olympics and they barely managed to do it in time. That's not to say they didn't pull it off spectacularly, but they were scrambling down to the wire. Athens had 7 years as well and they were apparently even less ready (from what my cousin and others told me, though who knows - that's hearsay).

And as big as the Superbowl is, it pales in comparison to the Olympics.


...but man, would it be awesome.

[Wacca Pilatka]

USA Today has an opinion about Jacksonville...... http://www.usatoday.com/story/gameon/2013/02/19/35-american-cities-host-olympics/1931177/

This kind of pallid, gratuitious, shopworn stuff is why a lot of us complain that the sports press has a vendetta against Jacksonville.

I'd be inclined to share this with some local hotels.  If USA Today cheerfully admits that it has no problem offending Jacksonville, perhaps Jacksonville hotels would prefer to provide a different newspaper to their guests.  Hotels seem to be that deep and insightful paper's only source of circulation, at any rate.

[fsujax]

what a jerk. I was about to say does anyone even read USA Today anymore.

[Adam W]

USA Today has an opinion about Jacksonville...... http://www.usatoday.com/story/gameon/2013/02/19/35-american-cities-host-olympics/1931177/

This kind of pallid, gratuitious, shopworn stuff is why a lot of us complain that the sports press has a vendetta against Jacksonville.

I'd be inclined to share this with some local hotels.  If USA Today cheerfully admits that it has no problem offending Jacksonville, perhaps Jacksonville hotels would prefer to provide a different newspaper to their guests.  Hotels seem to be that deep and insightful paper's only source of circulation, at any rate.

The worst part about that article is that it isn't even remotely funny or clever. What a waste of column inches.

[Wacca Pilatka]

The worst part about that article is that it isn't even remotely funny or clever. What a waste of column inches.

Agreed.  Leaving aside my pro-Jacksonville biases and all, I'm continually astonished at the lazy, unfunny hackwork that passes as sports humor journalism.