The most inspiring happy ending since Rocky!!

Updated on October 2, 2009 By Ken Begg 11 Comments

Chicago did NOT get the Olympics.

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  • David Fullam

    Congrats Rio!

  • Yeah, aside from the fact that it means they won’t be here (yay!), Rio should also be a gorgeous venue for the games.

    I still won’t watch them, but nonetheless.

  • I was rooting for Rio myself, since this would be a first for South America. However, a little bit of me is sad that I won’t be able to mooch off my relatives in Chicago so I can watch the games. Only a little part, though.

  • Come mooch off them so you can go to B-Fest!

  • Ericb

    I was glad when NYC lost out for 2012. Talk about a money pit and a logistical nightmare. Hell they haven’t even been able to rebuild Ground Zero yet how would they handle the Olympics?

  • roger h

    I saw this picture and could only think:

    “A great disturbance in the Force. It was like a million voices crying out in unison, then suddenly silenced.”

    http://twitpic.com/jz2zq

    The rent seekers of Chicago will have to search elsewhere. Do the Cubs need a new stadium? That brick thing is just so last century and don’t get me started on all the ivy.

    ;)

  • I am upset that Chicago didn’t get the games. Not because I was pulling for the U.S. But because the mayor in my hometown of Birmingham, Alabama (yes, Birmingham, Alabama) has this ridiculous notion that Birmingham should make a bid for the 2020 games. Sure, we literally do not have the capacity to host the games in any way, shape, or form (not the arenas, not the transportation, not the hotels, etc.) and therefore have absolutely 0% chance of winning a bid. But why should that stop us spending the money on committees and plans? At least had Chicago won, a U.S. city wouldn’t have been eligible for 2020.

    I hate the leadership here.

  • Theodine

    Well I come from St. Louis and Chicago is our hated rival, so yea!! We hosted the Olympics in, I think it was 1904. Same time as the World’s Fair. Congratulations Rio!!

  • The general feeling of us locals seems to be vast relief. I’m sure there are people who are actually sorry, but I haven’t come across any of them. Rio is welcome to the Olympics. Let’s hope they don’t regret it, as so many cities have. As for us, we’ll just have to live without spelling spending even more umpteen billions of dollars and thousands of patronage jobs and a dreary seven years of posturing and self-congratulations.

  • P Stroud

    We had the Olympics in Salt Lake, near where I live. As usual the thing lost money and ended up being another tax burden. It didn’t impact the traffic as much as feared, but then I avoided the venues with a passion. Scalping prices for venues reached several hundred bucks with scalpers lining the streets in the Olympic zone. Seems the oh so moral city fathers of SLC passed some special laws allowing public drinking and scalping (that’s ticket scalping not Blackfoot scalping) in the Olympic zone. Funny how moralism so quickly takes a back seat when a few million bucks are at stake. One can only imagine the massive levels of extortion, payoffs and graft in any Chicago Olympic effort.

  • ginbot

    To G Stewart:

    Wow, someone else from Alabama reads this site and comments? (Huntsville myself). I do like Bham’s film festival. Besides that, and places to eat (and drink), that’s all I can comment on from there. Ah Alabama, where each county (and sometimes cities within that county) you have to figure out what the drinking laws are.