The 2012 olympics will be held in

[Slappy8800]

we find out in about 25 minutes

im betting on France or London

 

[RWhitney014]

London wins! Good, London is a great city. That Parisienne arrogance would have exploded if they had won. Just for the record, the rest of France is cool, but those Parisiennes hate us so I'm glad they lost.

 

[phunwin]

I'm just glad NYC didn't get it. As a New York taxpayer, I had ZERO desire to help finance this overhyped garbage when the state has plenty of bigger needs.

 

[finfansince72]

Man if the dollar stays down can u imagine how much it would cost someone to go to England and watch the olympics? You'd throw down like 500$ a day easy just for one or two people.
The olympics pay for themselves, its a billion dollar tourist takein, NewYork lost out bigtime. Could have used the profits the Olympics take in.

 

[RWhitney014]

The Olympics pay for themselves after they are over. It takes millions of dollars of taxpayer money to build all the facilities necessary, including stadiums, dormitories, etc., as well as for things like lighting and security. Sure, afterwards the city is in the black, but that money doesn't go back into taxpayers' wallets.

 

[Pink_Dove]

One important thing to note is the jobs it creates: Delanoe, Paris's mayor, was ranting about how it would help revitalize the economy and bring in 43,000 jobs. The job topic being a hot one in France, people jumped on the bandwagon as soon as they heard that.

 

[finfansince72]

Its goes into the wallets of the vendors, and business owners that rake in a small fortune when the olympics come to town. Its an investment, how much of your tax payer dollars goes towards anything that actually makes people money? Id pay some more taxes so that my city can build new facilities and alot of busniess can be brought into town. Its a big loss for NY no question.

 

[Crisis]

I'm just glad NYC didn't get it. As a New York taxpayer, I had ZERO desire to help finance this overhyped garbage when the state has plenty of bigger needs.

Couldn't have said it better. I'm tired of NYC being the money pit of NYS.

 

[Roman529]

I'm happy London won it...they were deserving and I was even happier Paris got beat out.....President Jacques Chirac said British food sucked....Chirac is eating crow tonight.

 

[phunwin]

There are some sources that would indicate that the Olympics are far from a cash cow...

http://finance.news.com.au/story/0,10166,15272927-14305,00.html
http://www.zeenews.com/znnew/print.asp?aid=225310&sid=spo&ssid=93
http://www.moneyweek.com/article/395/investing/economics/olympic-games.html

The top article notes the specious conclusion that since Greece's Olympic committee had a budget of 1.9B Euros, and received 2.09B Euros, the Games were a financial success. It somewhat casually mentions the other 7.1B Euro cost that was associated with hosting the games. Essentially, the Greek profit on the 2004 Games was merely a paper profit. In real terms, they lost 7B Euros.

Even assuming that NYC's infrastructure doesn't need the beefing up that Athens' did, it seems highly unlikely that there would be a profit after all expenditures are accounted for. The 43,000 jobs is a nice number...until you consider that it would cost over $20 billion to create those jobs (by comparison, Beijing is budgeting $23B for the 2008 Games), not to mention that many of those jobs would be temporary.

While it's noted that most government expenditures don't make money, most of them don't hemmorhage money for a very short-term gain like an Olympic bid would. The State of New York spends way too much money on frivolous projects as it is, and this would be yet another attempt at a quick fix solution at a time when long-term direction is necessary for reclaiming the title of "The Empire State".

 

[Buddwalk]

I'm waiting for them to take the olympics somewhere really small like rhode island...lol have so many people come there the town wont fit lol

 

[phunwin]

Couldn't have said it better. I'm tired of NYC being the money pit of NYS.

For a Bills fan, you're okay, Crisis. :)

BTW, not sure if you live in Erie County (I'm assuming you do), but if so, doesn't it absolutely drive you nuts that the State is willing to commit money hand over fist for these far-flung projects in NYC while Erie County is all but picking change from the couch cushions to try and settle a budget crisis that could bankrupt the state's second largest city?

 

[phunwin]

I'm waiting for them to take the olympics somewhere really small like rhode island...lol have so many people come there the town wont fit lol

It's been done. It was before you were born, but even so, you might possibly have heard of a Winter Olympics held in the little town of Lake Placid, NY. Some American kids beat the world's best hockey team and won a gold medal. Pretty big deal.