Mayor Bill de Blasio says he has not had “serious discussions” about New York making a bid to host the Olympic Games.
A report in The Financial Times on Wednesday said that Gov. Andrew Cuomo and city officials have discussed trying to bring the 2024 Olympics to the city.
The possible bid would be centered on an Olympic Village in Queens.
But de Blasio said the history of cities hosting the Games are “a mixed bag.”
While he said Wednesday he would work with Cuomo if a bid is planned, he has previously expressed little interest in hosting the Olympics.
Under ex-Mayor Michael Bloomberg the city made a failed bid for the 2012 Olympics.
The new bid is being championed by David Doctoroff, former head of economic development under Bloomberg.
(AP)
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2 Responses
New York is already the stage for two major-league baseball teams, two pro football teams (if you count part of New Jersey as New York), two pro basketball teams, two pro hockey teams, the US Open (tennis), and a major marathon. We also have several minor-league professional teams, some significant college basketball teams, and an insignificant college football team in the athletically insignificant Ivy League. There are also some major golf tournaments played in the area (Westchester Open, Bethpage, some New Jersey courses. You want sports? We got sports. We even have (if you count the Adirondacks) Winter Olympics (1932, 1980).
We do not need the Olympics, a hodge-podge bundle of events so uninteresting that it is held only every 4 years. Track and field events are real sports, swimming is a real sport, but the rest of it is mostly nonsense, e.g., horse dancing (known as equestrian events), riflery (we got enough guns on the street for anyone who wants to watch that), and little girls in leotards twirling ribbons.
Salt Lake City needs the Olympics, Montreal (maybe) needs the Olympics, other small cities may need the Olympics, but New York has enough going on that the Olympics is not worth the traffic jams and other indirect cost, not to mention the direct costs. The actual financial return to the city, other than to persons directly supplying goods and services to the events, is negligible and probably a financial loser for the taxpayers. Leave the Olympics to Bratislava and Sochi and Salt Lake City. New York has better things to do and better way to spend its taxpayers’ money.
It’s more heroin for sports junkies who should be going cold turkey. There’s no glory in this. The millions wasted on this rot are an embarrassment.