Jax contacted about hosting 2024 summer olympics

[KenFSU]

Just a lazy columnist looking for low hanging fruit. I've had five people at work email me that story already. It's really sad that such a great city is so insecure and thin skinned about every poorly written insult that comes along. Especially disappointing is that the Times-Union story on the invitation to bid actually PROVIDES A LINK to the USA Today column. Jax need to grow some balls, stop spreading every troll link from glorified bloggers (especially our local newspaper, come on), and have the confidence to just ignore irrelevant shit like this column.

[Ocklawaha]

Olympics? I'd be happier if we landed a World Fair, but then the USA quit paying the dues required of member states meaning we'd probably have to cough up some bucks just to pull and even chance.

The idea of a Fair that spotlighted ideas, technology and inventions, is somehow far more interesting to me then some 13 year old kid doing flips on a beam.

[Adam W]

Olympics? I'd be happier if we landed a World Fair, but then the USA quit paying the dues required of member states meaning we'd probably have to cough up some bucks just to pull and even chance.

The idea of a Fair that spotlighted ideas, technology and inventions, is somehow far more interesting to me then some 13 year old kid doing flips on a beam.

Do they still do those, Ock? I remember when the World's Fair was in Knoxville in 1982. I can still hear the theme song from the commercials in my head. I wanted to go so badly. One of the kids in my class said he was going that summer, though he might've been telling tales.

It seemed like the coolest thing ever.

[thelakelander]

Olympics, Worlds Fair???

To be honest, I'd be happy if we can find a way to keep our street lights on, mow our public ROW on a routine basis, and not pave over Hemming Plaza.  If we can string together a couple of accomplishments like that then perhaps it starts to make sense to consider things like super bowls, olympics, and world's fairs.

[cityimrov]

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

I know a lot of people are angry about what he wrote but how is he wrong?  The Jaguars have been doing very bad.  The Superbowl didn't show off the city in the best of light.  There's hundreds of complaints on this board showing what major issues Jacksonville faces.  How else are those tarps going to get off the stadium at the rate this city is going? 

How is a sports writer suppose to write good things about Jacksonville when the city is doing it's best to be the negative clown?  It takes hard work to be as bad as this city is trying to be.  Most here wants to do anything about anything and it's hurting everyone here in a world scale.  Jacksonville used to be the best city of the South.  Now it's a former shell of it's once proud self.  It's a city that's begging for billionaires to come save it instead of making it's own billionaires to save others.  This is the current reality of this city and this is a reality that can, no, must be changed. 

Only the people who live here can do that.  The choice is up to them to do so. 

[Adam W]

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

I know a lot of people are angry about what he wrote but how is he wrong?  The Jaguars have been doing very bad.  The Superbowl didn't show off the city in the best of light.  There's hundreds of complaints on this board showing what major issues Jacksonville faces.  How else are those tarps going to get off the stadium at the rate this city is going? 

How is a sports writer suppose to write good things about Jacksonville when the city is doing it's best to be the negative clown?  It takes hard work to be as bad as this city is trying to be.  Most here wants to do anything about anything and it's hurting everyone here in a world scale.  Jacksonville used to be the best city of the South.  Now it's a former shell of it's once proud self.  It's a city that's begging for billionaires to come save it instead of making it's own billionaires to save others.  This is the current reality of this city and this is a reality that can, no, must be changed. 

Only the people who live here can do that.  The choice is up to them to do so.

Though I might disagree with you about "the best city in the South," I think you're basically right. Well, it's worth pointing out that the writer insulted pretty much all of the cities on the list. That was the point of the article. It's not like he was just picking on Jacksonville. And it certainly could've been worse.

No one likes to get bashed in the national press and I'm sure a lot of it stings a bit more because the team has had trouble selling tickets, so that's a real sore spot. The writer hit a nerve with that one. But as I mentioned earlier, it  could've been funnier or whatever. At least give us something to laugh about, for Christ's sake.

[Wacca Pilatka]

It's more tediously stale and lazy than some incisive commentary about reality in Jacksonville.  The Jaguars have tarped seats but still have a larger capacity than 11 other stadia.  Ticket sales have improved significantly despite a badly performing team.  The Tebow issue has been put to rest since the Jaguars have made public their lack of interest in acquiring him.  Oakland tarped seats to reduce capacity to 53k, as compared to Jacksonville, whose tarps reduce capacity to 67k.  (Incidentally, there's nothing embarrassing about having 67,000 seats for an NFL game.  It's not like the tarps reduce the stadium to some tiny capacity by NFL standards.)

And what do we get out of it?  A Tebow/tarp joke (about the 5,263rd of each a sportswriter has made in the past decade), along with the little "Oh, by the way, Jacksonville deserves the insult and none of the other cities do" comment at the top of the article.

The recycling of the same comments is brutally tiresome.  I don't live in Jacksonville and I'm sick to death of its being stereotyped as the city that can't sell tickets and is obsessed with Tebow, when the team (and many Jaguar fans) has disowned Tebow and multiple cities do worse in ticket sales despite having bigger markets and better teams.  It's lazy and it's long past unfunny for writers to continue to beat this to death. 

The mockery of Jacksonville stems from sportswriters' inability to fathom that a smaller market has a pro team - this goes back to their being stunned that Jacksonville got the expansion team in 1993 - and from their displeasure with the 2005 Super Bowl.  The latter of which was not a deep and moving commentary on the city's urban revitalization or infrastructure problems but their pampered selves' griping about not getting to spend that Super Bowl in New Orleans or Miami.

Yes, Jacksonville has problems.  There are a lot of reasons for us to be reflective about them and make changes to address them.  These problems have absolutely nothing to do with why sportswriters find it hilarious to pick on Jacksonville.  It'd be one thing if they were giving the city a negative reputation for having dynamited so much of its downtown or for its mass transit system.  Instead they've giving it a national black eye over talking points that are inaccurate and/or terminally stupid.

[Wacca Pilatka]

No one likes to get bashed in the national press and I'm sure a lot of it stings a bit more because the team has had trouble selling tickets, so that's a real sore spot. The writer hit a nerve with that one.

What hits a nerve is that the team has done a good job of selling tickets in the past three seasons, better than a number of other franchises with better teams on the field in bigger markets, and sportswriters still paint Jacksonville as the team with an empty stadium and dispassionate fans.  And this is what people around the country believe.  As soon as anyone finds out about my love for Jacksonville and the Jaguars, I'm immediately asked when the team is moving or about tarps or about whether Tebow would rectify all of these supposed problems.  Then when I get irritated, they're shocked or think its funny because the inaccurate jokes have gained the status of fact in the national image of Jacksonville.  None of it has anything to do with Jacksonville's actual problems.

[vicupstate]

Olympics, Worlds Fair???

To be honest, I'd be happy if we can find a way to keep our street lights on, mow our public ROW on a routine basis, and not pave over Hemming Plaza.  If we can string together a couple of accomplishments like that then perhaps it starts to make sense to consider things like super bowls, olympics, and world's fairs.

+1,000

Jax needs to forget trying to achieve something few cities can do, and instead try to accomplish the things most cities have already done.

[Ocklawaha]

Olympics? I'd be happier if we landed a World Fair, but then the USA quit paying the dues required of member states meaning we'd probably have to cough up some bucks just to pull and even chance.

The idea of a Fair that spotlighted ideas, technology and inventions, is somehow far more interesting to me then some 13 year old kid doing flips on a beam.

Do they still do those, Ock? I remember when the World's Fair was in Knoxville in 1982. I can still hear the theme song from the commercials in my head. I wanted to go so badly. One of the kids in my class said he was going that summer, though he might've been telling tales.

It seemed like the coolest thing ever.

Yes, they still have them. Unfortunately the United States got into a screwy situation after the Knoxville Expo broke even and the New Orleans Worlds Fair had some exhibits padlocked by the local sheriff thanks to shady financing. Jessie Helms pushing an isolationist policy got laws passed, that through the federal maze, made it impossible for us to pay our national membership dues to the The Bureau International des Expositions (BIE).

Fast forward to today and both Houston and San Jose California are both on course to grab the 2020 Worlds Fair. San Jose apparently has the financial backing to pay the past due membership fees, and they have a former military base for a location.

Most of the new Expos. like the 2010 in Shanghai or the 2012 in Yeosu, South Korea have constructed Live-Work-Play model developments to house the many employees. This would offer an unprecedented opportunity for us to "remodel" one of our urban moonscapes. We pulled off The Sub-Tropical Expo in 1888, I think we should visit this again.

JACKSONVILLE 1888

http://www.bie-paris.org/site/  Official Website

http://www.expomuseum.com   Excellent online 'museum'

[JaxJag]

Lets shoot for the stars!

[dougskiles]

We won't likely ever be a candidate fr the Olympics, but that doesn't mean we can't go after Olympic qualifying events.  Or world championships in the odd years.  Hopefully, we are successful in getting the 2016 swimming trials, and can build toward larger events.

[Ocklawaha]

Olympics, Worlds Fair???

To be honest, I'd be happy if we can find a way to keep our street lights on, mow our public ROW on a routine basis, and not pave over Hemming Plaza.  If we can string together a couple of accomplishments like that then perhaps it starts to make sense to consider things like super bowls, olympics, and world's fairs.

Well if by some miracle the economy doesn't completely implode the Olympics in 2024 or a Worlds Fair in 2024-30 would give us plenty of time to fix some light bulbs and get a grasp on City 101. The lead time for any of these events is extremely long, I think our 'One Spark' techno fest idea could easily be molded into a World Expo event. I'm not holding my breath, but it does look like a nice fit.

[Keith-N-Jax]

LOL at Olympics, can we at least get the skyway to the stadium first

[Adam W]

Olympics? I'd be happier if we landed a World Fair, but then the USA quit paying the dues required of member states meaning we'd probably have to cough up some bucks just to pull and even chance.

The idea of a Fair that spotlighted ideas, technology and inventions, is somehow far more interesting to me then some 13 year old kid doing flips on a beam.

Do they still do those, Ock? I remember when the World's Fair was in Knoxville in 1982. I can still hear the theme song from the commercials in my head. I wanted to go so badly. One of the kids in my class said he was going that summer, though he might've been telling tales.

It seemed like the coolest thing ever.

Yes, they still have them. Unfortunately the United States got into a screwy situation after the Knoxville Expo broke even and the New Orleans Worlds Fair had some exhibits padlocked by the local sheriff thanks to shady financing. Jessie Helms pushing an isolationist policy got laws passed, that through the federal maze, made it impossible for us to pay our national membership dues to the The Bureau International des Expositions (BIE).

Fast forward to today and both Houston and San Jose California are both on course to grab the 2020 Worlds Fair. San Jose apparently has the financial backing to pay the past due membership fees, and they have a former military base for a location.

Most of the new Expos. like the 2010 in Shanghai or the 2012 in Yeosu, South Korea have constructed Live-Work-Play model developments to house the many employees. This would offer an unprecedented opportunity for us to "remodel" one of our urban moonscapes. We pulled off The Sub-Tropical Expo in 1888, I think we should visit this again.

JACKSONVILLE 1888

http://www.bie-paris.org/site/  Official Website

http://www.expomuseum.com   Excellent online 'museum'

Thanks Ock. That's very interesting. I guess World's Fairs used to be a big deal but probably don't necessarily have the same sort of draw they once had. But they probably inspire investment and redevelopment similar to the way the Olympics do for host cities, but on a smaller scale. And with that Live-Work-Play model, it sounds a bit similar to the idea of re-tooling the Olympic villages and areas and using them for housing, like they do in some cities.