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The 2024 Olympics US city candidate is...Boston

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UPDATE

– Boston will represent the United States in its bid for the opportunity to host the 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games, the United States Olympic Committee announced today. The decision followed a spirited discussion and more than one round of voting. Ultimately, the Boston bid received the unanimous endorsement of the USOC’s board of directors.

Today’s announcement followed final presentations from representatives from each of the four cities in December 2014. The 22-month domestic evaluation process began with outreach to approximately 35 U.S. cities and six months of collaborative discussions with the four finalists regarding the technical elements required to host the Olympic and Paralympic Games.

“We’re excited about our plans to submit a bid for the 2024 Games and feel we have an incredibly strong partner in Boston that will work with us to present a compelling bid,” said USOC Chairman Larry Probst. “We’re grateful to the leaders in each of the four cities for their partnership and interest in hosting the most exciting sports competition on earth. The deliberative and collaborative process that we put in place for selecting a city has resulted in a strong U.S. bid that can truly serve the athletes and the Olympic and Paralympic movements.”

The International Olympic Committee’s deadline for 2024 bid submissions is Sept. 15, 2015, with the host city to be determined in 2017. The timeline for the 2024 bidding process was announced during the IOC Extraordinary Session in early December, during which time Olympic Agenda 2020 was finalized. Among the 40 recommendations – which were unanimously approved – the reform package allows for a more flexible and cost-effective bidding process.

“Today’s decision begins the next phase in our 2024 bid campaign, and we couldn’t be more excited about the partnership we’ve established with the leadership team in Boston,” said USOC CEO Scott Blackmun. “This bid uniquely combines an exciting, athlete-focused concept for hosting the Olympic and Paralympic Games with Boston’s existing long-term vision. We look forward to working with Mayor Walsh and the Boston 2024 team to fully engage with the local community and identify ways we can make the bid even better.”

"It is an exceptional honor for Boston to be chosen as the U.S. representative in the running for the 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games,” said Boston Mayor Marty Walsh. “This selection is in recognition of our city's talent, diversity and global leadership. Our goal is to host Olympic and Paralympic Games that are innovative, walkable and hospitable to all. Boston hopes to welcome the world's greatest athletes to one of the world's great cities."

“Today’s selection by the USOC is the beginning of an incredible opportunity for Boston,” said Boston 2024 Chairman John Fish. “This bid has already provided our many educational institutions, community and business leaders, and elected officials a unique opportunity to collaborate like never before to promote our city to the world. Going forward, Boston 2024 is committed to a thorough and extensive process to discuss the potential opportunity the Olympic and Paralympic Games present our community. Boston is a global hub for education, health care, research and technology. We are passionate about sports because we believe in the power of sport to transform our city and inspire the world’s youth. A Boston Games can be one of the most innovative, sustainable and exciting in history and will inspire the next generation of leaders here and around the world.”

Under the new structure, the IOC will meet with representatives from each applicant city from Oct. 7-9, 2015, in Lausanne, Switzerland, to establish rules and procedures for the international bidding campaign. Cities will then have until Jan. 8, 2016, to submit final bids to the IOC.

“The Olympic Games are unique in their ability to bring the world together in celebration and unity,” said IOC Executive Board Member Anita DeFrantz. “I very much want to bring the Games to the United States to share the incredible spirit of the Games with another generation of Americans, and advance the Olympic and Paralympic movements.”

“The United States has something unique to offer the athletes of the world and the Olympic and Paralympic movements as a whole,” said IOC Member Angela Ruggiero. “I couldn’t be more excited to share Boston’s athlete-focused vision for the Games with my IOC colleagues.”

The U.S. last hosted the Olympic and Paralympic Games in 1996 (Atlanta). St. Louis hosted in 1904 and Los Angeles held the Games in both 1932 and 1984.

http://www.teamusa.org/News/2015/Ja...nt-City-For-2024-Olympic-And-Paralympic-Games

Original:

Officials in San Francisco, Los Angeles, Boston and Washington have been awaiting a decision from the U.S. Olympic Committee on which of the four will be the American entry to host the 2024 Summer Olympics. Their wait may come to an end this week.

The U.S. Olympic Committee announced today that its board of directors will meet to discuss the four cities' bids Thursday at Denver International Airport — and then possibly travel to the winning city to hold a news conference, if it makes a final choice, as many expect. The USOC had narrowed its list down to the four finalists in June.

Here's how the gambling website Bovada ranked the contenders, back in December, according to CBS San Francisco:

Los Angeles – 1:1 odds
Boston – 2:1 odds
San Francisco – 4:1 odds
Washington – 7:1 odds


NPR's Howard Berkes reports that this is considered the best opportunity for the U.S. since Salt Lake City was named host of the 2002 Winter Olympics. Still, he reports, an American bid for the 2024 Olympic and Paralympic games will have stiff competition, including Rome, a yet-to-be-named German city, and possibly Paris or South Africa. IOC members like to take "Olympism," as they call it, to new places, and Africa never has hosted an Olympics.

http://wamu.org/news/15/01/05/la_dc_sf_boston_us_pick_for_olympic_host_may_come_thursday

Will update this thread when it's announced!

A lot of people hate how much the Olympics cost, but one great aspect is the way it forces massive (necessary) infrastructure upgrades, especially for transit.

Boston and SF could use the infrastructure upgrades the most, but they also happen to be the smallest cities.

LA already has massive infrastructure plans under way, and they also have the most stuff ready to go, especially if they get a new NFL/Olympic stadium.
 

cirrhosis

Member
C'mon DC!

That'd be great. I don't know where they would build facilities though.

But we really would appreciate the infrastructure/transit cash injection.
 

rude

Banned
The traffic in LA if that were to happen. I just can't imagine. I'd just be forced to sit my ass down at home.
 

Ramza

Banned
Are any events going to be outdoors? If so, a city with lower air pollution would be nice, so LA is probably out.
 

explodet

Member
Meanwhile the 2022 winter olympics contenders are down to a small fishing village in Greenland and an empty lot behind a 7-11 in Jersey.
 

ahoyhoy

Unconfirmed Member
Put it in the middle of Montana or something so that it doesn't upset our infrastructure too much.

All of those cities listed are amongst those with the worst traffic already. DC residents would suffocate from the smog created by all the cars jammed up on the Beltway.
 

Drkirby

Corporate Apologist
Yeah, LA seems like a decent choice, though none of them are that great. I personally don't really feel its worth the investment to host the Olympics in the US so I don't really care and hope we lose our bid.
 
Are any events going to be outdoors? If so, a city with lower air pollution would be nice, so LA is probably out.

Most host cities have pollution issues. Tends to not stop them.
The host city is usually the hub of operations.
For Olympic games, some of the events tend to be held in fairly remote locations.
For the Atlanta Games in '96, a lot of the white water events were held in Tennessee

Anyways, this sounds like more incentive to let Kroenke build his Rams stadium there too.
Less hassle for the organizing committee.
 
The traffic in LA if that were to happen. I just can't imagine. I'd just be forced to sit my ass down at home.

Traffic during the last LA Olympics was lighter than it had ever been.

Remember carmageddon? Same deal.

Media hypes traffic
People stay away from highways
No traffic happens.

Every time.

Same with London. Many locals use the Olympics as vacation time and left the city.
 

Ramza

Banned
Most host cities have pollution issues. Tends to not stop them.
The host city is usually the hub of operations.
For Olympic games, some of the events tend to be held in fairly remote locations.
For the Atlanta Games in '96, a lot of the white water events were held in Tennessee

Anyways, this sounds like more incentive to let Kroenke build his Rams stadium there too.
Less hassle for the organizing committee.

Like, a bunch of them.

Well... That didn't stop Beijing.

Oh, I know it won't stop them. But it would be nice if they would actually consider that as a factor. But this is the IOC we're talking about.
 

Einbroch

Banned
That would be 2:1 odds though, surely?

2:1 is a ratio. If you were to draw a ball out of a bucket of two red balls and one blue ball, you'd have a 2:1 chance of getting a red ball.

50% would be 1:1, but it's a little confusing if you directly translate ratios to percentages as they are reversed. 10:1 is smaller than 2:1.
 

Irminsul

Member
That would be 2:1 odds though, surely?
No. When you say "chances are 1:1 of it happening", you mean it's equally likely that it does and that it doesn't happen. It's as if you're mixing different ingredients: "Three parts X and two parts Y" means that you have a sum of five parts of stuff, of which 60% is X and 40% Y.
 
Sorry West Coast, but I'm rooting for either Boston or DC. I think those cities would be able to handle the influx of tourists much better.
 
2:1 is a ratio. If you were to draw a ball out of a bucket of two red balls and one blue ball, you'd have a 2:1 chance of getting a red ball.

50% would be 1:1, but it's a little confusing if you directly translate ratios to percentages as they are reversed. 10:1 is smaller than 2:1.

Its a stupid system for the news reporter to use. Gamblers and people taking 9th grade math might know what it is, but the average person wants a percentage.
 

Einbroch

Banned
Its a stupid system for the news reporter to use. Gamblers and people taking 9th grade math might know what it is, but the average person wants a percentage.

It's absolutely stupid. We're not talking about money, or a hard number, where ratios make sense. These are simply percentages. I agree completely.
 
I hope it happens to Boston because the other three cities have culture and landmarks and neighborhoods etc. that shouldn't be bulldozed.
 

ggnoobIGN

Banned
LA seems like a lame city for an olympics. Chicago would have been perfect. New York next best. San Fran seems cool but might be a disaster at the same time.
 
I'm personally hopeful against it being DC. This entire area is already annoyingly expensive to live in. We simply don't need another expense like this.
 
I think it's time for the Olympics to be in a less congested city in the US. I remember my parents taking me to some events during the Atlanta Olympics, and it was an absolute nightmare because our roads can be very confusing around here.
 

ParityBit

Member
Boston is also good at rapidly building the sort of massive infrastructure projects that the Olympics require, IMO

Like the fact it ihas taken us almost 12 years to add a single lane to 128? Which still is not done? Or the Big Dig, which was 4* what the initial cost?

All big projects should stay the hell away from Mass.
 
I'm hoping for DC since I live 45 minutes away from DC. Although I'm not sure where it would be in DC and if our current infrastructure could handle it.
 
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