Quote:
Originally Posted by tsarstruck
It would be a gigantic waste of money, which is what cities across the world from non-autocratic nations are finding out. It's why Boston backed out. It's why LA is now seeking a waiver exempting them from any of the inevitable cost overruns before agreeing to take their place as a candidate. I don't want to derail the conversation into what a boondoggle that almost all Olympics (minus Barcelona and 1984 LA) are, but if we're making planning and funding decisions based on hoping to one day maybe host the Olympics, we're making mistakes on two levels. [/ENDRANT]
Anyway, the Temple football stadium is definitely not being built with an eye towards the Olympics. It seems ridiculous to me on a variety of levels and is a huge gamble, but that's a whole other kettle of fish.
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I don't exactly disagree, but I think it's absolutely a mistake to simply dismiss the idea without fully exploring it. The problems you mention with hosting the Olympics are well founded, but as you admit there are some success stories and I've always felt that Philadelphia is really the only American city that would make any sense to host the Olympics, at least in the sense that there is at least scenario in which this city would greatly benefit from hosting the Olympics. There are 3 main reasons.
1. Philadelphia's wealth of existing sports infrastructure - Clearly the most pointless waste of money that goes into Olympic Spending is the stadiums and other like infrastructure which often becomes pointless once the games leave. But Philadelphia, with a wealth of high end stadiums and arenas (which the public has already paid for at great expense) could reduce waste in this regard like few American cities could. A new stadium for Temple (especially if they went with Mappy's plan, which I really like) only further enforces this point.
2. International Exposure - In a sort of tangential way, I actually work in the tourism industry here in Philadelphia. Most Americans have no idea that Philly is this country's 5th largest city and is as big and amazing as it is. Internationally, most people don't even know Philadelphia exists. Philadelphia is a city that could stand to get some exposure on the international level. Much like Barcelona in this regard, having the Olympics could boost our international tourism for decades to come. It really wouldn't be a hard sell. Millions and millions of tourists already come to America and visit NYC and then travel south to DC. How hard would it really be to convince them to stop and spend some of their time here in Philly.
I can't tell you how many times I've talked to travelers who planned a vacation to east coast of America that involves spending a few days in Boston, NYC and DC and short trips of a few hours in Philadelphia and other stops along the way. Nearly every one of those travelers I've encountered finishes their time in Philly and wished they planned for much more time here. Most can't believe that Philly is larger than Boston considering it has so much more international prestige and most who went to Boston primarily for the history often come away far more impressed with the history you can find here. Getting a few weeks to remind the world that Philadelphia is the birthplace of modern democracy and showing off our city on a global stage would be huge.
3. Pushing forward needed transportation and infrastructure projects - The first two points are nice and all, but perhaps still not worth the effort and expense that goes into hosting the Olympics. This final point is what puts it over the top. If Philadelphia hosts the Olympics we will be forced, absolutely forced to make some upgrades to our transportation infrastructure that have been overdue for decades. New light rail lines, extended subways, etc, the Olympics would like bring all of this and more, not to mention the incredible amount of work that would go into the general beautification of the city.
Now in a perfect world... scratch that... in a country more dedicated to public transit, we wouldn't need to host the olympics in order to make these types of moves. But in the reality we live in with a still criminally underfunded SEPTA, any expansion to our transit infrastructure is largely a pipe dream. Hosting the Olympics will force us to spend money on things that we should be spending money on anyway and will greatly benefit this city in the long term.
If I'm a betting man, let's be honest, hosting the Olympics would likely be a boondoggle for Philadelphia. But Philadelphia also has the very real ability to use hosting the Olympics to really improve this city. I think it's something to seriously consider and not just dismiss outright because the Olympics have failed elsewhere.
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