Olympic Philliness

Phila. can't cut Olympic mustard
By Larry Eichel
Inquirer Staff Writer

There will be no Olympics in Philadelphia.

Yesterday, the city was eliminated by the U.S. Olympic Committee from what had been a five-city competition to become America's candidate to host the 2016 Summer Games.

Surviving the cut were Chicago, Los Angeles and San Francisco. Houston joined Philadelphia in falling by the wayside.

(snip)

USOC officials said the decision to cut Philadelphia and Houston was based largely on a survey the USOC conducted of 100 members of the Olympic community from around the world - the kind of people who ultimately will have the final say on where the Games go.

In that survey, said Bob Ctvrtlik, the committee's international vice president, it was "very, very clear that... the three cities, Los Angeles, Chicago and San Francisco, were best positioned within the international sports movement to go forward at this time."

Philadelphia and Houston came in fourth and fifth, not necessarily in that order, in the technical analysis as well, USOC officials said.

"Reading between the lines, it's clear that our international reputation was our main flaw," said David L. Cohen, executive vice president of Comcast Corp. and cochair of Philadelphia 2016, the local organizing committee. "And it was the one thing we had no capacity to address in the time frame that was available."

(That means changing the political shenanigans before the IOC gives the city the once over, folks! Apparently, Mr. Cohen is resigned to the same ol' same ol' Democratic bulls**t!)

The TrekMedic muses:

Personally, I was against Philadelphia getting the US Olympic nod based not on our strengths (pre-existing sports venues and infrastructure), but for this simple reason:
Just as many people protested the 2008 Summer Olympics being held in Beijing because it legitimizes the Communist regime, holding the Olympics in Philadelphia also legitimizes the "pay-to-play" atmosphere that would have seen union goon fat-cats lining their pockets with millions, if not billions, of dollars directed towards building and upgrading whatever venues would have been used!