The US Olympic Committee is asking 35 cities whether they’d be interested in hosting the 2024 games. And Rochester is one of them.
“It came as a surprise,” city spokesperson Mike Keane told me during a phone interview this afternoon.
Keane says that while the city appreciates the Olympic Committee’s attempt to be inclusive in its search, it wouldn’t be able to support the Games. For starters, the city probably wouldn’t be able to meet the infrastructure needs, which include 45,000 available hotel rooms. A New York Times article points out that many of the cities probably won’t meet the criteria, and singled out the requirement for hotel rooms as an example.
There’s also the cost of preparing a bid. New York City and Chicago each spent in excess of $10 million on past bids to host the Olympic games. Rochester can’t afford that, Keane said.
The Times says that the US Olympic Committee hasn’t decided whether to pursue a bid to host the 2024 Olympics.
And even if Rochester wanted to put itself in the running, should it? Some host cities have been left to pay off large tabs, which they’ve struggled to do. Athens, Greece, which hosted the 2004 Summer Olympics, is an extreme example. The country is facing a financial crisis and there’s been open speculation that the Games played a role. Time magazine addressed the issue in a piece published last year.
This article appears in Feb 20-26, 2013.
Before I say anything, let me say that I recognize that Rochester would not be a city that would be chosen to host the Olympics. That said, the handling of the “ask” represents all that is wrong with the Richards administration running our city!
What should have happened was this…Mayor Richards should have called a press conference to say “He was thrilled for your city being considered!” and taken the opportunity to empanel a “blue ribbon” group of community leaders to review the viability of the opportunity. He then should have voiced a concern about whether funds were available from the state and federal governments to “showcase our great community to the world”.
In the process of review, we would have done an inventory of our assets as a world community! The panel would have determined that this was not the right time to try to lure the Olympics here, but, the net result would have been a gain in our self esteem and, the beginning of a new collaboration of leaders to advance the perception of Rochester!
Instead, what we got was another Mayoral pronouncement…”This is not feasible”…emotional win crushed…opportunity for discussion dismissed…city collaboration with county, shot down…and more of the same from our “leader to the future”
During the special election for Mayor, Tom Richards was portrayed as “Monopoly Man”…that was the wrong character! He is more like “The Wizard of Oz”…a very good man, but a very bad wizard!
Throwing cold water on the USOC’s unfathomable letter was the only rational course of action for the Richards administration. To have entertained such a proposal would have made Rochester look foolish in the extreme and most likely have resulted in us being the butt of a joke or two on Leno or Letterman.
Out of curiosity, how do those civic boosters who are wasting their time giving this laughable idea even a moment’s serious consideration think we were going to accommodate the Olympics?
Would we use the Erie Canal as the pool for water events? Could we build a narrow but VERY tall stadium on the site of Midtown? Could we quickly cobble together RenSquare and use it as the site for the opening and closing ceremonies? Would we schedule diving competition at High Falls? Could we raze the few building that remain at Kodak Park and use the site for the Olympic Village? Might we convert the empty spaces at Melody Center and the various boarded up homes scatter throughout the city into tourist housing? And lastly, should we put Bill Johnson in charge of transportation and let him buy back the Fast Ferry to bring over the Canadian Olympic team?
By the way, the 2012 London Olympics cost $15 BILLION dollars. Somehow I doubt a mortgage on City Hall would generate that much.
MJN,
The proposal should have been regional as is the case with most Olympics. Combine the resources of Syracuse (Carrier Dome), Buffalo (stadiums) , college campus hotel rooms, Onondaga Lake for rowing events (they hosted the national rowing regatta for years), etc.
Study time does not cost money…hip shooting does! It was worth some time instead of a silly quote..”we have the special olympics this weekend, and that is fine with us” as more of the dismissive comment again!
Clint – Are you seriously proposing a “regional” Olympics with no centralized location and with events scattered across a geographic area stretching over 150 MILES? With all due respect, such a plan would generate nothing except aucous laughter from the USOC and make Rochester look like a gaggle of rubes.
And study time does in fact cost money. As do fool’s errands.
But if you must initiate a study then start with answering the question of which group of taxpayers you intend to stick with the multi-billion dollar loses that Olmpics generate.
The Winter Olympics are frequently a regional competition. Vancouver had the hockey, etc., while Whistler (1.5 hours away) had the skiing. Same will happen in Sochi for the next Winter Olympics. That said, having the Olympics here is a terrible, money-pit of an idea and will never happen.
Let’s see, the Olympic Committee’s letter states that to be considered as the US candidate site for the 2024 Olympics a city must be able to provide .
1) 45,000 hotel rooms
2) an Olympic Village that houses 16,500
3) a 5,000 seat dining hall
4) media facilities for 15,000 reporters
5) an international airport
6) public transportation between the venues
While we mght be able to lie about Item #5 and claim that the Monroe County Aiport, I mean the “Rochester International Airport” actually IS an international airport (hey, you can ocassionally fly to/from Canada) I think we might have a small problem getting past those other 5 conditions, studies or no studies.
Here is breaking news…as I said in the first post, I get that getting the Olympics would be virtually impossible. That is not what I am saying at all. What I am saying is that making the cut to even be considered to get the letter is good for the psyche of our community! In addition, dreaming makes things happen, even if you do not realize your dream as you envisioned it.
New Orleans, Toronto, Las Vegas, and even Indianapolis (which became the amateur sports capital of the US) started their journey by trying to get things they would never get. I bet when Lake Placid got the winter olympics, there was no logical reason for it to do so, except, state and federal support.
I am a criticizing Tom Richards for so swiftly taking the issue off the table. I know for sure that if you do not try to do something, you will accomplish doing nothing!
Clint – not “virtually impossible”, but 100% , guaranteed, carved-in-stone, impossible. And the time and effort (and money) of the local community and government is far better spent on working to fix Rochester’s many problems rather than embarking on yet another fool’s errand. Remember the Less-Than-Fast Ferry , a totally avoidable ego trip that ended up costing the state and local taxpayers over 80 MILLION DOLLARS ?
And you’d lose your bet on Lake Placid. They were selected in 1932 because they already had the facilities needed for the Winter Olympics in place. And only 17 countries and 252 athletes participated. Crowds were nil given that America was in the depths of the Depression. They won the 1980 Winter Olympics because they were the only city that bid for them. Critics decried poorly planned transportation which left spectators waiting for hours in freezing weather, and athletes complained about lousy accommodations at the Olympic village, (where the dorms would later be turned into a prison). Attendence was well down from previous years given a lack of spectator interest and the difficulty in even getting to the venues and in finding accommodations. Guess that would make Lake Placid a ftting role model for a Rochester Olympics.
So once again, well done Mayor Richards . Thanks for putting common sense and fiscal prudence ahead of mindless boosterism. No sense making us look any more foolish then the ferry, RenSquare and the Midtown debacle with Paetec have already done.
Clint – And by the way, I wouldn’t brag about that letter from the US Olympic Committee as Rochester obviously received it by mistake as we are neither one of the 25 largest cities in America, nor has anyone taken the “credit” for approaching the committee and expressing Rochester’s interest in hosting the Olympics.