how big of a finacial boost would it be if LR/NLR got the olympics (Little Rock: price)

[bralon01]

ok i know this wil never happen but just think would it be good for the two citys if they got the olympics

[ArkansasSlim]

Out-O-Sight - but as you wrote, it will never happen, because they will never cooperate enough to make it happen.

[thewizard16]

Originally Posted by ArkansasSlim

Out-O-Sight - but as you wrote, it will never happen, because they will never cooperate enough to make it happen.

It's more complicated than cooperation I think. Or even that it'd be an overall (net) financial boost. The cities are far too small and do not have the financial strength to cover the potential billions in overruns that come with being in the running for an Olympic site. The Olympics typically do not make money. If you break even, you're doing good. The real benefits are typically the facilities left over after the Olympics that can be put to use and used to host major events (and theoretically increased tourism through better name recognition, etc.), but even then it's not necessarily a good thing for the cities financially and they can be left with billions in public debt and facilities that cost millions a year to maintain and have to do some serious event volume to break even, which is not a guarantee of course. From a financial perspective the Olympics are a big gamble and not necessarily one with the odds in favor of paying off. It's more about prestige, pride, and recognition and you need to be able to afford the price those things come with if you want to host. But, as mentioned, it's a moot point since there's no possibility of this happening. If the metro area was around 4,000,000 instead of 700,000 this would be a more realistic possibility.

[bchris02]

America is going to have a hard time getting the Olympics again after the disaster that was the 1996 Atlanta Olympics, but even if they did come to America I don't believe Little Rock has the infrastructure to support it.

[ArkansasSlim]

My reply was intended to be a little , but of course they are not big enough to have one, and have a reputation of not cooperating. I think the OP recognized it would never happen but was offering a "what if" question.

[grmasterb]

Originally Posted by bchris02

America is going to have a hard time getting the Olympics again after the disaster that was the 1996 Atlanta Olympics, but even if they did come to America I don't believe Little Rock has the infrastructure to support it.

The Atlanta Olympics were a disaster only in the minds of those on the IOC. Yeah, we all heard stories of the issues with bus drivers not knowing where they were going, and that religious nutjob Eric Rudolph sure did throw a monkey wrench in things (Does Munich ever get such criticism for having a terrorist event at its Olympics?). Overall, however, I think the IOC treated Atlanta like garbage for complaining about the "over commercialization" of the Atlanta Games. All of those corporate sponsorships greatly reduced the taxpayer burden, and there was smart use of new and existing facilities.

But as others have noted, Little Rock simply isn't large enough to put on the Olympics. I doubt it could even afford the security apparatus required, and it would undoubtedly be forced to sustain several white elephants afterwards. Little Rock is more likely to suffer the fate of Nagano or Athens than Los Angeles, Atlanta or Salt Lake City.

After the way the IOC treated Atlanta and Chicago's 2016 bid, I couldn't care less if the Olympics ever came back to the U.S.

[North Pulaski Player]

bralon01, you've got quite an imagination.