The New Republic

I don't understand the hullabaloo. Does it really matter whether the President is making calls from the oval office or Air Force 1? He'll work on the way there, work on the way back, and spend a little time schmoozing...during which he will probably have other items on his agenda, forging relationships, etc. As far as the policy goal here, I haven't heard many US politicians willing to go public with a NIMBY attitude to the Olympics. He should be the first?

- rjb9

September 29, 2009 at 12:42pm

The "he should be spending time on other things" argument isn't strong. The trip will be very short and will probably not involve any one-on-one schmoozing as he won't have time. He'll give a presentation, answer questions, and go back home. All of those big issues were about as big and about as critical when Obama took his vacation, and it's hard to see how the trip will detract from any of them in concrete terms. Oh yes, the "optics." Optic-wise, it's probably a minor-to-non-issue, except perhaps Obama is looking to score one more in the "we like the world now, the world likes us" column. Amorphous, sure, but why not? As for the "he risks unnecessary defeat" argument, I suppose he does. On the other hand, if Chicago wins -- and the bookmakers now make it the clear favorite -- it's also an easy victory, a positive story, a later potential victory lap, etc. Yes, there will be cranks who complain, just as I bitch about our dumb space program, which actually costs money, whenever I get the chance, but I doubt that that view will dominate. I believe that the vast majority of Americans support an Olympic bid, appearances by heads of state are now seen as required in order to win the vote, it's a trivial investment of time and political capital, and it may well pay off with positive, rather than negative "optics." BFD.

- jhildner1

September 29, 2009 at 1:13pm

Jason honey - get a life.

- WandreyCer

September 29, 2009 at 1:25pm

Jason, your idea will happen when pigs fly. The NCAA Final Four's been out of arenas for over a decade (The Meadowlands was the last in 1996.) Now, they're even changing the way the Domes are set up so they can make more money. Basketball Dome setups used to use roughly half of the Dome, like the Georgia Dome did in the 1996 Olympics. Now, they're sticking the courts at the 50 yard line on a raised setup that's simply godawful, so they can sell more tickets. Hell, Fargo has a better chance of getting the Olympics than there being a normal arena-ed final four. As for Obama schmoozing the IOC, blame Tony Blair and Putin over him. Their efforts on scene right before the choice for the 2012 and 2014 Summer and Winter games established the precedent, and so every other World Leader (Lula, Spain and Japan's PMs) will be there. To not show would be a hindrance to the bid. Finally, to the NIMBY factor. To say the Olympics didn't benefit Atlanta is simply, silly. Centennial Olympic Park's become the center of a strong tourist hub that is eminently strollable, and provides a location to gather and enjoy oneself. It's surrounded by CNN Center, the Dome (home of the Falcons, various basketball tournaments and College football games), Philips Arena (home of the Hawks, Thrashers, and many concerts), the Georgia Aquarium, new World of Coke, an in development Center for Human and Civil Rights, and in 2010 the College Football Hall of Fame. In addition, the Olympic Village became new top quality dorms for Atlanta's two in town Universities, Georgia State and Georgia Tech. Those dorms have been critical to the former's evolution into more than a commuter school, and the latter into a world class engineering school. Furthermore, the Olympic Stadium became a teriffic new baseball stadium for the Atlanta Braves, replacing an aging Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium. This was all accomplished, I might add, without costing the taxpayers anything but for security and long term infrastructure benefits (things like Streetscaping, public transport, etc. that needed to be done anyway), as it was all paid for with sponsorships and ticket sales, turning a profit of $10 million. Reading your study, I was amused at this quote: "The primary facility, Olympic Stadium, became the new home stadium for Atlanta Braves baseball. Instead of providing a venue of high quality and instant historical significance for future track athletes, the stadium now serves as yet another chapter in the story of public subsidies for professional sports teams." Yes, we should keep a giant 85,000 seat track stadium in Atlanta that no one will ever use, instead of providing a facility (made without Taxpayer contribution, beyond turning some of Fulton County Stadium's Parking Lots over to build it on) that's open 81+ nights a year. Some economic impact that would have!

- Crock1701

September 29, 2009 at 1:50pm

Your second link (the "issues" in "some issues") is broken.

- Simon Greenwood

September 29, 2009 at 2:09pm

Did you ever stop to think this might be something Olympia Snowe set as a condition for her vote on health care reform? Why? Well, that probably revolves around a thicket of inside deals involving the Senate Finance Committee, Rahm Emanuel, the big banks, organized crime in Chicago, Rod Blagojevich, ACORN and Project 9/12. Or maybe Obama is planning to run for mayor of the Windy City someday. Must I always be the one who thinks outside the box here? gw

- iambiguous

September 29, 2009 at 3:21pm

Didn't Tony Blair and his French counterpart do exactly this sort of active lobbying for the upcoming Olympics before London finally won the bid?

- scrubby

September 30, 2009 at 10:50am

Crock1701 beat me to it; his third paragraph is pretty much everything I wanted to say. Centennial Olympic Park is a short walk from my office, and I invite Mr. Zengerle to stroll around it with me next time he's in Atlanta. The transformation is amazing. I remember well what that area was like before the park: empty lots, parking lots, and boarded up buildings. It has since become a central gathering place for concerts, major events, 4th of July, etc. Children play in the Olympic Rings fountain in summer, and return in December for the winter lights. To the list of attractions which have sprung up around the park, there's also a children's museum, hotels, condos, and restaurants. Anyone familiar with Downtown Atlanta knows the great difference the park has made for the area. As for the Braves ballpark, I know journalists are generally skeptical of development claims made for sports arenas, and most of the time that skepticism is merited. Taxpayers wind up paying for facilities that enrich team owners (including a certain former president in Texas). However, Atlanta's approach to these facilities has been unusually solicitous of taxpayer concerns. We got a new ballpark for the Braves (replacing the old one, which was not well suited for baseball) paid for mainly by Visa, Coke, GM, Swatch, and the rest of the Olympic sponsors. The Phillips Arena, used by the Hawks, Thrashers, and various concerts, the circus, etc., stays busy most of the year. It has to, because it basically has to pay for itself. (One of Martin Luther King III's notable acts as a Fulton County commissioner was to hold out for a better deal for local taxpayers; the sports teams would have to go bankrupt before we would be on the hook.) And the Georgia Dome (built in 1988, so not an Olympic legacy) manages to be more than an 8-or-10-football-games-a-year kind of place, by booking other sports events, concerts, and numerous events associated with the adjacent convention center.

- baxterjones

September 30, 2009 at 11:37am

Hosting the Olympics in the U.S. has real value for anyone interested in what we used to call "Olympic" sports, before basketball and other money sports intruded. Gymnastics, wrestling, swimming, track and field and more depend on the peak of the Olympic cycle to rekindle interest in what colleges now refer to as "non-revenue" sports, but which can be more important developmentally for our children than the big-money team sports. All true that the Olympic Games can be no big thrill for millionaire basketball players, but for runners and divers and discus throwers, this is why they train. Yes, there's been corruption and waste at IOC, but that would exist anywhere the gamers are held. Bring them to Chicago and maybe they'll inspire another Cullen Jones or Rulon Gardner.

- emccded

September 30, 2009 at 11:53am

And, if he hadn't gone to plug for Chicago ... and, they lose the bid ... he'd be blasted for not having gone ... especially considering every other contender for the bid is sending their respective President. It's a no win situation and to criticize him for going is as ridiculous as this article.

- pburton16

September 30, 2009 at 12:25pm

What makes you think we in Chicago want the Olympic games? Polls have it at 50-50, and I believe those include suburban residents who won't be on the hook if the games go over budget. Daley has been an awful manager of the budget (he plugs holes by selling tollways, parking rights, and tried to sell the smaller of our two airports) -- goodness knows what will be left by the time he gets done with the Olympics.

- Lymon1

September 30, 2009 at 3:50pm

Howdy Lymon, yes, Daley has faced an unprecedented degree of discontent lately stemming from his moves to privatize previously public functions in order to raise cash. In fairness to him, the Skyway deal has not been brought into doubt financially, and the aborted Midway deal may well have been a good one. The Midway counterparty didn't end up wanting to go through with it; that doesn't make it a boondoggle avoided. Meters is the thing that's really got us all hot and bothered -- probably a bit too much so. The main objections are that the city sold the meters too cheaply, and that the company didn't manage the transition well. The latter point is true, but will pass, if it hasn't already, and the former point is not obvious. Anyway, it's parking meters, not the apocalypse. As for the Olympics, the bid has won the support of the Civic Federation and the Chicago Tribune, both of which are conservative financial watchdogs. Daley didn't handle the local sell-job well, I agree, but our knee-jerk NIMBY business is overwrought. Further, it's transitory. Chicago 2016 has later polls putting the support at a much higher figure, which I believe, because the Tribune poll was taken just around the time Daley was facing sharp controversy, since softened, over the financial guaranty. Meanwhile, all the trivial anecdotal bitching about crowded L's and so forth is just so much trivial anecdotal bitching, which we Chicagoans, along with everyone else in this world, love to indulge in, not really to our credit.

- jhildner1

September 30, 2009 at 11:35pm