Olympic fever

If you’ve been around here awhile, you may remember that in 1994 boosters of the Salt Lake Olympic bid managed to keep local students from conducting a debate on whether to bring the games here. Airing the negative side was seen as potentially harmful to the city’s chances.
I thought about that when I read that Chicago’s Olympic boosters managed to get a Fox affiliate to stop airing a report that included interviews with people opposed to the bid.
That darned “freedom of speech” thing always gets in the way of a good cause, doesn’t it?
Look, I have no problem with President Obama traveling to Denmark this week to pitch Chicago’s bid. There is nothing wrong with wanting the United States to host another Olympic Games.
But I do have a problem with local boosters who claim this will be a huge boost to tourism and economic development. This editorial from the Philadelphia Inquirer says organizers estimate “that the 2016 games would bring in about $22.5 billion in economic development for the state of Illinois, including $13.7 billion for Chicago.” That kind of hype is as glaringly obvious as the Sears Tower.

I’ll concede that the Salt Lake games helped the local economy, even when weighed against the cost. But in the long run, most people outside the state have forgotten about it (although I’m sure state economic development folks are using it as a selling point, as they should).
But then, Utah was unknown to most people before the games. Any buzz it got was a real boost, albeit a temporary one. On the other hand, everyone already knows Chicago. Sell the games on patriotism, or on the need to bring the goodwill we all felt here in 2002, but not on long-term economic development or tourism. There are limits to what a sporting event — even one as big as this — can do.
Memories fade quickly. When was the last time you planned a vacation to Calgary because it was an Olympic city?