*** Race Is On For The 2016 Olympics ***

New York, NY --
It's that time again: Cities around the world have
begun the biannual process of promising the greatest
show on earth to the voting members of the International
Olympic Committee.

They'll hope that the pandering and the commitment of
spending boatloads of taxpayers' dollars will pay off and
they will be selected as the host city for the Olympics.

Last Friday, the committee announced that seven cities
have submitted an application to host the 2016 Olympic
Games. Baku, Azerbaijan; Chicago; Doha, Qatar; Madrid;
Prague, Czech Republic; Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, and Tokyo
will all "officially" enter the Olympics race first heat on October
1. That is when the bidding cities find out just how much real
support they have from their local governments — which is a
key component to an Olympic bid.

The IOC itself can figure out how much real support a
bidding city has through a questionnaire, or "mini bid-book,"
which has to be completed and turned in on January 14, 2008.

The mini bid-book will give the bidders a chance to explain
if they have what it takes to run a 17-day sports festival.

What the IOC is looking for is pretty simple: How much
money will local and national governments spend on facilities,
how much television and Internet money will be available, and
how much corporate support can be counted upon so that the
Games can go on? On June 8, 2008, the IOC will cut the list of
candidates based on the mini bidbooks.

Those running in the second heat will adjust money figures
and show the IOC that their local governments are prepared
to spend to the max in an effort to get the Games. The rationale
behind the bids will be simple: We will show off our city to the
world, make our city a tourist destination, and while we are
building all sorts of new sports venues, we will work on urban
renewal.

What the bid cities will ignore, though, is that hosting a
Summer Olympics drains local governments of money
and forces all sorts of hikes in various taxes to pay for
the sporting contests. Residents of Montreal — and the
rest of Quebec — finished paying off all the debt associated
with the 1976 Montreal Summer Games — in 2006.

Australia is paying hundreds of millions of dollars annually
on upkeep of unused stadiums and arenas that were built for
the 2000 Games in Sydney. Greece is also paying off billions
of dollars of debt after hosting the 2004 Summer Games in Athens.

Despite that, the mini bid-books will be filled with all sorts
of projections from product licensing, and local and national
government grants that will be generated by tourists not only
attending the Olympics but by visitors who will go to the
country because it is an Olympic city.

All the facts and figures from the bidding cities will be
available in a complete bid dossier that has to be submitted
on January 14, 2009. On September 9, 2009, the IOC will
give its opinion, and that is when the sprint to the finish starts.

The bidders will have about a month to fix up their bids, and
then hope their number is called on October 2, 2009, in
Copenhagen, Denmark, when IOC members vote on the
city they judge to have met all the criteria — the most money
on the barrelhead is thought of as the chief component — to
host the Games.

So, the race has started. Baku, Prague, and Rio de Janeiro
seem to be the three most likely to not survive the first heat:
Rio de Janeiro had submitted a bid for the 2012 Games, but
was eliminated after the first heat.

The Brazilian government, though, has promised to cover
any financial shortfall that might be incurred by the local
Olympic Committee's finances this time around — music
to the ears of IOC delegates. The IOC has never shied
away from sticking local taxpayers with bills that pay for
new or renovated stadiums.

Baku has to be considered a long shot. In July, the chairman
of the National Olympic Committee of Azerbaijan, Chingiz
Huseynzade, said the cost of hosting the 2016 Summer Olympic
Games might be $20 billion. That is a 2007 estimate, but the real
cost could be billions more — as Athens found out.

The Prague committee has given all the usual answers as to
why it should host the 2016 Games. According to Tomas
Petera, the director of the Praha Olympijska, the bid "would
be a contribution to the country regarding the completion of
its infrastructure, the improvement of its lifestyle, the promotion
of Prague, and the entire country in the world, and enhancing
the importance of sport."

No word, though, on how Prague plans to pay off the billions
meant to improve the lifestyle of Czechs due to the Olympics.

Tokyo last hosted the Summer Olympics in 1964.
Its bid committee has brought the following message
to the IOC: The governor of Tokyo, Shintaro Ishihara,
was quoted as saying that hosting the Olympics "is a
national project, which will leave tangible and intangible
fortunes to Japanese citizens.

We will make the utmost effort for a successful bid."
Japan's government will pay up to half the building costs.

Doha is an interesting bidder. Money would seem to be
no problem because of oil business. But Qatar is located
on the Arabian Peninsula, and has been a staging point for
American forces in the Middle East. Climate is another problem,
as Qatar is a desert. Qatar plans to release information about its
Olympic plans in October.

Madrid is taking another kick at the can. Two years ago,
Madrid finished behind London and Paris in the 5-country
race to get the 2012 Summer Games. London won the bid
by pushing an international marketing campaign.

Madrid appears to have learned a lesson from its failure.
The City Council of Madrid has paid $2.4 million to Spanish
Olympic Federations, in exchange for the Federations support
to promote the Madrid 2016 Olympic and Paralympic Games
bids. The Federations also agreed to help with the mini bid-book
development and promote the project with the International
Olympic Committee and International Federations.

Chicago will be in the race until the last day, because
American dollars fuel the Olympics in terms of TV.

American companies such as McDonald's and Coca-Cola
spend much money on the Games as well. But Chicago has
a big problem right now: It doesn't have an Olympic stadium,
and is planning a temporary venue that would be used just for
the 2016 Games.

The Chicago Olympic Bid Web site has a list of 16 reasons
as to why Chicago should host the Games. It's the usual pap
that includes "Unite the World," "Celebrate Our Love of Sport,"
— and then comes the reasons dealing with money.

Items 5–9 state that the Olympics will act as a "Catalyst for
Wide Spread Urban Development," will "Generate Economic
Benefits Before the Games," will "Generate Economic Benefits
During the Games," will "Generate Economic Benefits After the
Games," and will promote "Accelerated Planned Infrastructure
Improvements."

These are old arguments that, as economists point out, don't
hold water. There is very little evidence that any of these
promises held up in either Los Angeles (the home of the
1984 Games) or Atlanta (which hosted the 1996 Summer
Olympics) or anywhere else.

The race begins now. In the end, it will come down to who
wants to spend the most for two weeks' worth of sports glory.

ACC - http://www.genesbmx.com/2008-bmx-olympics.html