My 2012 Olympics prediction: London
The IOC is making the decision tomorrow, Wednesday July 6th. As I mentioned before, I'm actually kinda glad Houston's no longer in the running. Don't get me wrong - I'm sure we would have done a bang up job. I just think it would suck up all the available energy in this city for the next 7 years, and there are bigger and more important problems that need that attention and energy - like maybe education, flooding, transportation, neighborhoods, crime, pollution, etc. We already did our superficial spruce-up for the Super Bowl - time to focus on the real stuff.Back to the prediction: New York is out because the West Side Stadium got rejected. Paris is the front-runner, but I think they will get rejected for a few reasons:
- Unpleasant anti-globalization political environment from the rejection of the EU constitution
- Stagnant economy that could degrade even further over the next 7 years
- If you were the IOC, would you want to risk one of France's infamous transportation strikes during the Olympics?
posted by Tory Gattis @ 8:30 PM
3 Comments:
You nailed it!
I have to wonder if something as basic as the English language makes a difference. Lobbying another person (like an IOC rep) is a subtle process, and the right tone and choice of wording is a big part of it. English is the world's second language, including IOC reps. That gives a natural advantage to the London and NY bids, where the bid teams are obviously very fluent in their native language. This seems to be confirmed by press reports that the London and NY presentations were the most impressive and went over the best.
Nice pick. Being right is fun.
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