No Surprise
The Miami Herald says that Rio wins right to host the 2016 Olympics.
South America has never hosted the Olympics and Rio has an international reputation as a party city, so it shouldn’t be a surprise.
The US should just stop wasting money applying to host international events. The War on Terror™ has made it a royal PITA for anyone to travel to or even through the US, so no international group is going to take US bids seriously.
EBW at Wampum has made this point multiple times concerning Internet meetings, which are no longer held in the US because of visa hassles.
The same thing happened in this year’s Iditarod, with only one European team, and only five Canadians competing.
As long as the paranoia continues, US cities should just stop wasting their money on international bids – it is not going to happen.
2 comments
No surprise to me that we didn’t win the bid… but I was a little shocked that they booted us on the first ballot. Only 18 votes. That’s quite a statement. And I don’t take this personally against Chicago… it was the US they were not voting for.
Most of the people that I talked to were either indifferent or against having the games in Chicago. As for me, I’m a Cubs fan, we’re used to this!
.-= last blog ..Inquisitive Sparrows =-.
When it is going to cost over $100 and require a visit to a US consulate to get a visa, and the US won’t issue visas to visitors from a lot of countries, you have to expect it.
I live in a tourist area, and our regular crowd of foreign tourists, including Canadians who own condos here, has disappeared. The travel restrictions have wiped out that segment of our market.
People, including the Brazilians are torqued off about it. Any Americans who want to go to Rio are faced with the same requirements that we imposed on the rest of the world, so I don’t anticipate a big US contingent.
The world is not ready to forgive and forget about the Shrubbery yet, and the US should just deal with it and not waste money on these bids.