LA or Chicago. Which City Do You Think Is More Deserving....

Didn't the Olympics help finance part of the I-15 / 215 reconstruction in SLC? Or was it all in state funds? Anyway SLC got their roads and freeways upgraded big time.

The only thing I remember about Atlanta is Richard Jewell.

The SLC Olympics allowed Mitt Romney to get elected Governor of Massachusetts. That's not a positive.

Here is a PDF of an analysis of the projected cost of holding the 2010 Games in Vancouver . The estimated cost, after figuring in all the tourist dollars is over a billion CD.

Here is a hearsay quote:<blockquote>Quote
<hr>Senator John McCain (R-Arizona), citing General Accounting Office studies, noted that the 1996 Atlanta Olympics cost federal taxpayers $609 million and the 2002 Salt Lake City Winter Olympics cost the federal treasury an estimated $1.3 billion.<hr></blockquote>
I think they should hold the 2016 Olympics in Baghdad.

The budget for 2012 in London is £9.3 billion.

Not sure how that translates to $US, because the billions are a bit different I think. Still a lot of money though!

i hope they don't have it in chicago ever

Sports is just Big Business, even the holy Olympics.
Spend the money on health care and start wagering on when Granny will die of cancer.

Earl Holding (Sinclair Oil) got inspired to build a big posh hotel, Grand America (nice patriotic ring dontcha think?), and upgrade his ski resorts for the SLC fanfare. Difficult to judge how that improved the quality of life for folks.

Chicago... LA's already had it.

The games are not what they used to be. They don't benefit the hosts as much as they are projected to.

If I were the Chicagoans, I'd insist on giving it to L.A. again (they had it in 1984 -- the marathon passed a half-block from my apartment). The Olympics is an excuse for every developer to loot the public treasury for meaningless white-elephant projects. Run for the hills, Chicago.

I read somewhere that both Salt Lake City and Atlanta made a TON of money on the games.

I live in Chicago and would love to have them to get some much needed public transportation expansion and better roads.