OLympics 2016, host city is:

[stevie_gerrard]

Was it just me, or was the chicago promo video much worse than the other 3? Quite frankly, judging on the basis of the videos, chicago was a very poor choice.

congrats to rio though, I will hopefully have a well paid job by that point to travel to watch the beach volleyball in the sun of rio

[Roamy]

Well great news to me - Please take the UN too. But I do have one question?
How are you going to enjoy the Olympics when you can't take your wallet ??

[Mark]

Well great news to me - Please take the UN too. But I do have one question?
How are you going to enjoy the Olympics when you can't take your wallet ??

RFID tags?!

[Hondo]

And now your prize!

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?p...d=aw5.4nzd_66s

Let's see, the IOC says Brazil needs to pony up (for the time being) $11.1 billion dollars to repair and expand Rio's public transportation infrastructure, repair and upgrade Rio's airport, and double the amount of hotel rooms. Supposedly the government will cover 70 percent of that figure and the organizers will come up with the rest, some $3.3 billion. The organizers expect $2.8 billion from ticket sales and sponsorships. That still leaves them a little short. Some dreamer is predicting that hosting the games will bring in $51.1 billion in revenue through 2027. I didn't know the track meet lasted that long.

Fiero predicts:

Cost of repairs, rennovations, and security will exceed $11.1 billion by a substantial amount. The people that quoted $11.1 billion will have no comment at this time.

Revenue from ticket sales will fall short of projections. The people that predicted the figure will have no comment at this time. The sponsorships will all be in Chinese. The sponsors will have a comment, but nobody will know what they said.

Once they've milked this deal for all they can get, the guys that predicted $51.1 billion in revenue will leave town. We haven't been able to locate them for comment.

Who ever dies, that was on the organising committee, between now and the start if the track meet, will get blamed for all the financial stuff falling through and biting Brazil on the butt. Everyone still living will comment.

The good news:

The security forces will be able to deal with the poor and criminal element in any manner they see fit because the main sponsor (China) isn't likely to give them a bunch of holier-than-thou crap over a couple of thousand human rights offences.

[Mark in Oshawa]

The Olympics. The greatest fraud ever perputrated on mankind. THe athletes and the competitions are wonderful, but the waste of money, political schmeing and the scamming behind the scenes are truly what is shameful.

Rio is being scammed, heck Vancouver and London are being scammed as well....but it is part of the the cycle of this world. The Olympics bring their circus to town and we still all want to watch. I am just happy Toronto didn't get them the last time they bid. They are broke now without an Olympics to pay for, and Montreal finally retired their share of debt from the 76 games this last year.

[Tomi]

Congrats to Rio, maybe the voters did remember the lousy arrangements in Atlanta too well, fair anyway that the games did go to south america.

[Eki]

Rio is in a friendly timezone for NBC, so in the end, the Olympics in Rio will NOT bother the TV people in the US. Not to mention the visuals. The Beach Volleyball on the beach at Rio will be one case where the audience will be more fun to look at than the participants!!!!

It's also a more friendly timezone for Finland. Rio de Janeiro is only 5 hours behind, while Chicago is 8 hours.

[HenryM]

for this

and for the possible benefits to the city I'm happy about this... but at the same time I'm afraid of the bad use of the money, the corruption and the stupidity levels are just to high... Rio hosted the "pan american games" in 2007, this is pretty small compared to the olympic games, and in that case they spent like 800% more than what was initially predicted... and some of the things built for this are not being used...

[Hondo]

And the real shame of it all, HenryM, is that people still fall for it over and over again. You'd think they would learn.

[Mark in Oshawa]

Henry, the point is the people of Brazil have to hold their politicians accountable for the money. If you elect the same idiots in power you have now, then then there will be waste. Likely no matter what, but at least make the effort.

Olympic games are too much for too little. Toronto lost twice, once to Atlanta, once to Athens. I thank god we never got them now, because as much as I would enjoy the games on my home soil, the cost is too much for even large cities to justify. 2 weeks of the world looking to your city and country isn't worth the cost. If you want to fix your infrastructure, you don't need a games to justify it.....

I am glad in a sense at least Rio won, allowing people in Brazil and South America to have the pride of having them on the continent for the first time, but I shudder on how Brazil will pay for them.