Absolutely BS. If it comes down to New York or a world city, I hope it goes to a world city. I don't care if we lost to Washington and SF... they both had pretty solid bids. But New York's bid was terrible. They're just getting a free handout because of 9-11. If we lose because someone was better, I don't mind... and you could make the argument that San Francisco had a good bid as well. But there's no way, at all, that NY should be a finalist.
They picked the two WORST cities. San Francisco's bid is based on its climate and scenery, with venues spread throughout the state. New York's bid isn't even fully funded, and (IMHO) based on 9/11 sentiment. Blah.
Say goodbye to the Astrodome. Will it survive for its 40th birthday in 2005? Probably not. That's prime real estate.
We got ripped off. On a different note... You sure could park a lot of cars in that dome if you built a couple entrances and a multi level parking garage inside.
Mostly likely it'll get torn down and houston will be left with crappy parking. Parking that average fans can't afford.
Damnit. I just don't understand how any of those cities were picked ahead of Houston...The Chronicle compared the four US cities a few months ago, and none of them seemed any better than Houston in terms of hosting the Olympics. Who else has the warm weather, abundance of sporting venues, and great sport following? We were definitely shafted on this one. They knew about the coming monorail right?
I think Atlanta killed Houston's shot from the very beginning. Like it or not, a lot of the Olympic types think the two cities are similar, and everyone agrees that the Atlanta Games sucked (and I'm not talking about the bombing). Having worked at the Atlanta Games, I concur that they were greatly mismanaged. The feeling is that a Southern "freeway" city is not sophisticated enough to pull off an Olympics and Atlanta will be there in people's minds for a long time. Please don't think I'm agreeing with this sentiment. I just think the bias is there in Olympic circles. The only silver lining is that every 3-4 Olympics have to be in the US to generate the TV money.
I actually thought that the USOC wouldn't pick NY due to 9/11...I was wrong. Well, I guess now that Houston's out, I can say that they only things I really watch are the opening ceremonies and I am rarely interested in most of the events itself.
You ALSO could use the AstorDome to store SPACE ROCKETS, if they were shorter and FATTER. DUKE been saying that for YEARS and making FIFTEE OR SIXTEY phones calls a day to suggestify it!!!! And does the MAYOR listen, NOOOOO he just sends his POLICE MEN to arrest DUKE? Well, YOU CAN SHUT UP A DUKE, BUT YOU CANNOT SILENSE THE FLAME!!!!!! piece out
Damn, thanks for that picture. Everybody I know in Houston keeps telling me how it dwarfs the Astrodome, but I had no idea. ...or the <b>FUBADome</b> for short.
The reason that New York got it was because of September 11th and I don't think that that is right. The most qualified city should get the Olympics and I think that Houston should've gotten it.
You know, I wonder if the Houston 2012 committee pitched the idea that the Olympics should be in Texas? After Dallas was eliminated, of course. One issue some people had with Houston was that it was not internationally well know. Maybe not, maybe so, but I think that Texas holds a certain charm and mystique with many people all over the world. Oh, well, there's always <i>next</i> time!
I forgot what movie it was, but Japanese people LOVE COUNTRY WESTERN number 1!. They love that country western music.
