My friend and I are discussing the Olympics. After a while, it dawns on me that Texas (the whole state) should bid on the Olympics. He argued that only cities get Olympics, so the concept of a ‘Texas Olympics’ was dumb. I disagree completely. The cities that matter are all pretty darn close to each other and Texas is one of the most marketable regions in the world. Every time I go overseas, people just want to ask me about "Texas". Between Houston and Dallas alone, we would have more than enough venues… and JerryWorld is an Olympic worthy stadium that would be perfectly suitable for the opening and closing ceremonies. It would help to have a mass transit system between Houston and Dallas, but that may exist by 2020 anyway. Why the heck not? I don’t think ‘Houston’ or ‘Dallas’ carry the same weight as ‘Texas’. The 2002 World Cup was hosted by two countries… why can’t the Olympics be hosted by a state that carries the weight of Texas! That is all. Who do you side with? Is it that outlandish to think a Texas Olympics would never work. If Atlanta and Saltlake city are compelling enough for Olympic locations, I say Texas defintely is.
The ONLY way this would work is if Texas had a passenger rail system linking the major metropolitan areas. If we had that....then the concept would at least be feasible. Otherwise, not a chance.
My impression is that local leaders use Olympic bids as an excuse to build all sorts of new infrastructure--whether it's needed or not. And the selection committee probably uses local commitment to "new stuff" as a criterion in selection: parks, stadia, airport improvements, new transit lines, highway expansions... all for a 2-week-long event... and rarely paid for without public help. Texas would probably be no different. Self-aggrandizing politicians + self-aggrandizing selection committee = lots of expensive new stuff that we don't truly need and definitely can't afford, which will find themselves empty as soon as the Olympics are over anyway. There are some benefits, of course, but I don't think they outweigh the costs (unless we could pull it off without building too much new stuff).
The Beijing Olympics had events in several other places besides Beijing...Hong Kong and Shanghai to name a couple...
