Washingtonians should be happy this week. A summer marred by extreme heat, dangerous winds and a loss of power for days on end doesn’t include the 2012 Olympics in town.
The 2012 games, which officially begin in London on Friday, was supposed to be in Washington.
The Washington-Baltimore region was among the four finalists 10 years ago to become the U.S. Olympic Committee’s choice to present to the International Olympic Committee to host the games in 2012.
If you read certain news accounts at the time, Washington was a lock to get the nod. But when the finalists were pared down to two bidders, San Francisco and New York were the USOC choices, and New York eventually got the nod.
It didn’t matter much because the IOC appears to despise the United States so much that there may not be enough bribe money on K Street to bring the Summer Games back to America. New York got passed over in favor of London, and then several years ago Chicago was laughed out of the room when the 2016 games were awarded to Rio de Janeiro.
For this, Washington should be eternally grateful.
The Olympics are touted as a boon to communities, but boondoggle is a more truthful description.
The tab for the London Olympics is $14 billion and rising, and losses will have to be covered with government funding guarantees — meaning the average citizen’s pocket will be picked.
London businesses that were promised riches will suffer losses as well. In Sydney for the 2000 Summer Games, local businesses went bankrupt as they anticipated reaping the rewards of the games only to find there were none.
Here’s one of the many dark secrets of the Olympics — more people leave town than come.
The mayor of Salt Lake City went on local television during the 2002 Winter Games begging people to come downtown and spend money in local businesses that were taking a bath financially.
Of course, part of the reason for that is the city that hosts the Olympics becomes an armed camp — with good reason, considering the real concern about a terrorist attack targeting the games.
Security reportedly is in chaos in London as the firm paid more than $500 million to direct it has failed miserably. There are now 18,000 soldiers — twice the number Britain has in Afghanistan — guarding London for a sporting event.
We already have to deal with our share of concrete barriers and metal detectors in Washington. Imagine what it would be like here with the Olympics in town.
The failure of the Washington-Baltimore Coalition in 2002 was the best thing to happen to the region in 2012.
Examiner columnist Thom Loverro is the co-host of “The Sports Fix” from noon to 2 p.m. Monday through Friday on ESPN980 and espn980.com. Contact him at [email protected].
