I might have been the only one not upset when Los Angeles lost the Olympic bid for 2016 in favor of Chicago.
When you think about it at first, it doesn’t make sense to have the Olympics anywhere but Los Angeles.
UCLA was scheduled to be the site of the Olympic Village in the proposal for the 2016 games. UCLA alum, and now mayor of Los Angeles, Antonio Villaraigosa would definitely have hooked us up.
Just imagine Rieber Terrace being an Olympic community; imagine eating orange chicken at Rendezvous next to Chinese ping-pong legends Wang Nan and Li Ju (because I plan on being in school until 2016).
It would be an experience and, after all, UCLA has more athletic facilities on campus than most other schools have buildings, not to mention the best weather in the world and In-N-Out. Why wouldn’t we have it here?
But of course the city with more bad seasons than “The OC” gets the U.S. Olympic bid.
Chicago, a city nostalgic for the Michael Jordan era and supportive of subpar NFL quarterbacks, will now go to the international stage and compete with some other random cities for the 2016 bid.
According to the United States Olympic Committee, Chicago is a better representative for America than Los Angeles.
I think it makes sense.
First of all, in this situation, Los Angeles is basically just a spoiled child. We’ve already hosted the Olympics twice and Chicago hasn’t had its shot yet. Los Angeles might very well be the epicenter of American culture (and I define American culture by overpriced movies, traffic congestion, materialism and the beach), but it wouldn’t be very American of us to have it in Los Angeles every year. As my roommate tells me when I bring home a bottle of tequila, we have to share the wealth.
Chicago is also a sports town. Although its sports teams have underachieved more than my waiters at Olive Garden, the fans remain loyal through thick and thin.
Coming from the city that has hosted some of the most successful World’s Fairs in history, they really do have the potential to pull this off.
And while we propose using our already-in-place facilities for Olympic events, Chicago promises a plethora of brand new beautiful facilities on their beautiful lakefront. The soccer finals will be played at Soldier Field.
If you have ever been to Chicago, it does sound pretty cool.
And after doing my research, I’ve realized that hosting the Olympics isn’t as much of a blessing as people think. It’s a huge burden on taxpayers. London 2012 is going to cost the English $18 billion. Sydney is still paying off the deficit from 2000. These deficits aren’t small either; they are in the hundred-millions to billions of dollars.
Personally, I’m already in trouble with my student loans, and there is no way I’m paying more taxes so we can bring the Hungarian handball team to Westwood.
So don’t be too upset about Los Angeles not winning the 2016 Olympic bid. It’s not our turn and it could be more of a burden than an honor.
L.A. Olympic supporters are now supporting Chicago in order to bring the Olympics back to America, and we should do the same.
They will look better on my 72-inch plasma screen TV anyway.
E-mail Wenzel at awenzel@media.ucla.edu if you are going to change your mind as soon as a soccer game is snowed out.