Hey, there! Log in / Register
Stop being wusses: When it comes to the Olympics, it's only money, she says
By adamg on Tue, 11/04/2014 - 7:48am
Karen Cord Taylor's case for trying to bring the Olympics here basically boils down to: A real world-class city would jump at the chance to go for the Olympics. That's what real entrepreneurs do! She concludes:
I don’t know, if we are chosen, whether things will turn out badly or well. I do know that taking a risk and prevailing is one of the most satisfying things a person, and a city, can do. And remember, it is only money.
Neighborhoods:
Free tagging:
Ad:
Support Universal Hub
Help keep Universal Hub going. If you like what we're up to and want to help out, please consider a (completely non-deductible) contribution.
Comments
No thank you....
We have far more important things to waste our limited funds on.
It's amazing
How whenever I hear the phrase, "It's only money." It's almost always uttered by someone who happens to be buried in it.
OR in charge of spending someone else's.
Guaranteed debt
Big difference.
An entrepreneur takes a risk because there's the chance of a reward. There's an upside, potentially a very big upside.
Financially, there is no upside to the Olympics. Any host city is guaranteed to have a very large debt when the party is over. Guaranteed. No entrepreneur would partake in such a venture with his own money. The only people that want the Olympics are the ones willing to spend someone else's money.
Just giving your comment a
Just giving your comment a thumbs up wasn't enough. I had to tell you personally that your post is spot on.
Getting scammed by the Olympics
Well since you put it that way, I'm all for it. I love getting scammed! What world-class city wouldn't jump at the chance to pay off the IOC and then cater to their every whim?
Also
Sorry the tax payers are not entrepreneurs, and if we invest, its in STABLE investments and bonds (or we so hope our pol's do this).
If entrepreneurs want the Olympics then they can pay every single cent with NO cost to the tax payers. I mean it is what entrepreneurs do... invest in high stakes investments. The Olympics is one of them.
Irregardless, the Olympics in Boston is just a bad idea all around.
Winner's Curse
Classic case of the winner's curse. To win, you have to have the best (most expensive) proposal (oh yah, and bribes), and then when you do win, you're already committed to sinking too much money into that the costs outweigh any benefits.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Winner's_curse
Key point of difference.
Entrepreneurs don't want to be entrepreneurs, the want to be successful entrepreneurs.
And successful entrepreneurs
tend not to take big risks. They seek to minimize risk. Fish and Suffolk have very little to lose in this bid, there is pretty much only upside. Minimal risk, big reward. The taxpayers, who surely aren't going to be enjoying the spoils, have only to lose.
The author's whole entrepreneur metaphor is lacking in so many ways, but then if she really understood entrepreneurship I think she'd be more than a blogger who founded a piddly weekly "newspaper."
Not that I have anything
Not that I have anything against bloggers, Adam!
Nice save.
Nice save.
Are you kidding me? This city
Are you kidding me? This city can't even host a fucking baseball game without grinding to a screeching halt! Now we wanna host thousands of athletes from all around the world for dozens of events for weeks? No thanks
Youre kidding, right?
This. City easily hosts a baseball game 81 times a year. Add hockey, basketball, concerts, circus, festivals and one timers like Head of the Charles or Marathon, and you'll find that tens of thousands of spectators pore in to Boston almost every day of the week. All of which is a drop compared to the million plus daily suburban commuters. Boston could very easily handle the Olympics. There might be legitimate questions to raise about financing, but can we handle the logistics? Absolutely.
"Easily"?
If it were a question of either the commuters OR the Olympics, maybe. Having the commuters AND the Olympics would be a gigantic clusterfuck. Now you're going to tell all those commuters to take a few weeks off, I suppose.
The same city who at the 2004
The same city who at the 2004 Democratic National Committee Convention, had all nonessential workers not come to work in the city? Hence no commuters? I am sure my work place would be thrilled to close down for two weeks!
During the Atlanta Olympics
People who worked downtown were supposed to take time off, work at home or get to and from work via (barely existent) public transportation. Was pretty much a PitA.
Most people I know from Atlanta got outta Dodge
When the Olympics were in Atlanta, most people I know who live anywhere near there rented out their houses/condos/apartments to visitors for exorbitant prices and took vacations.
Not in my neighborhood
Maybe those who lived closer did this....
Er...
Never driven around Kenmore Square on game day, have you?
You're right about one thing, it's not a "screeching halt". That would imply a good head of steam before coming to the obstruction, but as we know, that ain't happenin'.
Boston can't even handle rush hour
Check through the archives about which train line was shut down on any given day.
Not even close
Not even close.
First, the summer Olympics is A Big Deal. It has a very large number of events in all sorts of disciplines. The number of venues you need is mind-boggling.
The number of athletes is beyond anything that's ever done anywhere. Add in support personnel and you have a very large number of people that the host city is responsible for lodging, food, transportation, and overall comfort.
Now, add in the press. A playoff game or even a world series is like kids soccer game compared to all the press people coming from all the countries. Huge. If you had the World Series, the Super Bowl, the Stanley Cup and the NBA playoffs here at once, you may equal the number of press people for the Olympics. Maybe.
Finally, you've got the spectators, sponsors, dignitaries, and all sorts of other interested parties. Tons of 'em.
Now, you have to take all these people and transport them to all the events at all the venues.
Your example above is a drop in the bucket compared to the demands of the Olympics.
I mentioned awhile ago that a Globe sports writer put it best when he said it was simply a matter of scale when it comes to Boston hosting the Olympics. Boston is a small city and would simply be overwhelmed by the demands of hosting the event.
Since it's "only money"
tell her to her to front the bill or STFU.
I find people who write
I find people who write "soooooo" instead of "so" very annoying. Also, although I live in here, and there must be easily at least 250K entrepreneurs living here, I have never even met an entrepreneur.
Perhaps, I need to spend some time in the Innovation District.
"Risk-takers"
I think we, as a nation, have had about enough of "risk-takers" who are gambling with other people's money. I know that I personally have had it with hearing their paeans of self-praise for their bold entrepreneurial riskiness when they have no real skin in the game.
Question.
Does this opinion piece come in two ply?
Sweet fucking Christ
I just made the mistake of clicking over to the actual column, and the author actually uses the expression "soooooo [sic] Boston" in the first sentence. I didn't realize she was sixteen years old.
Like many sixteen year olds
She wants to spend someone else's money on something flashy, and doesn't like being told "no".
C'mon you guys!
It'll be fun!!!
Sooooooo
We MUST "invest" in this MONORAIL!
Well, by gum, it put Brockway
Well, by gum, it put Brockway, Ogdenville, and North Haverbrook on the map!
Who is her daddy?
Thurston Howell III?
It is incredibly perverse ...
... that it is more likely that Boston will host an enormously expensive one-time sporting event than that greater Boston will get a significant upgrade to its public transportation system -- which is something that we really need, and which would change this city for the better for 100 years.
Talk about perversion
It took almost 4 years to build a friggin bus stop in Kenmore Square. How the hell does this place build a subway line - or anything bigger than a bread box in less than 10 years - especially if all the contractors are busy building "venues"?
Give it a rest. This idea is DOA unless you are rooting for an Olympic sized belly flop.
Yeah, but
..."more likely" is still less than a snowball's chance in hell, so you can breathe easy.