Olympic Cheating? Not us, mate.

Now that the dust has settled, we get a glimpse (courtesy of CP's Paola Loriggio) of what was going on in Mayor Dad's office over the limp musings on an Olympic bid after the Pan-Am track-meet.

Toronto officials saw public resistance as the main threat to a possible Olympic bid and worried holding a referendum on the issue would “allow critics to overstate and inflate opposition” to hosting the 2024 Games, documents reveal.

Emails and briefing materials written by Toronto Mayor John Tory’s staff, obtained by The Canadian Press through access-to-information laws, suggest a lack of public and government support were seen as the “greatest risks” to a Toronto pitch.

No opposition groups are mentioned in that story but I am proud to have been part of NoTO2024 and it's gratifying to think we may have had a small effect on Tory's long-drawn-out but finally sane answer.

I was prepared to be quietly pleased until someone posted a link to GamesBids's spin on the story.

The author and website owner, Robert Livingstone (more about that in a minute), did mention us by name.

As the bid decision loomed, vocal opposition with social-media savvy emerged including the loosely organized NoTO2024 group that mimicked the strategies of No Boston Olympics.  The latter successfully cast enough doubt about a Boston 2024 Olympic bid during the previous months that the United States Olympic Committee (USOC) eventually parted ways with the Massachusetts group and moved forward with Los Angeles instead.

But the Toronto opposition often relied on erroneous and unsupported outdated “facts”, and in some cases inflammatory Website comments that bordered on libel, to try to get their opinions heard.

Ooooh. "Bordered on libel"?????

He quotes from the NoTO2024 website:

“Myth 7: The IOC is reformed
Nope – it’s still the same old cabal of unelected and often corrupt failed politicians, super-wealthy princes and the odd despot. They still demand five-star service, right from fruit in their hotel suites to private lanes on the highway. Millions of our tax dollars are poised to go directly (or rather, extremely indirectly) into their pockets.”

I personally sourced and documented every -- yes, somewhat snarkily presented -- fact in that quote.

Where, exactly, is the libel-bordering there, Mr. Livingstone?

I would have let that go too. Some kind of sour grapes or something at work there, poor guy, but here's the last paragraph.

It seems the citizens of Toronto and Canada were cheated out of a fair Olympics debate. It’s up to the IOC to continue to work on improving its messaging and the Olympic brand so that more informed discussions can happen in the future.

"Cheated out of a fair Olympics debate."

When the standard line from Olympics boosters and officials to ordinary residents is "don't worry your purty little heads about details," NoTO2024 was the ONLY citizen group trying to put some real facts in front of Torontonians and Canadians.

But hey, it's not like GamesBids had anything to gain from a Toronto bid (the author is based in Toronto, by the way). Have a look at its About page.

Our membership includes the world media, members of bid city committees around the world, IOC officials and key stakeholders in the process as well as Olympic fans, businesses and athletes. You can join too!

Please explore GamesBids.com and send us a note to tell us what you want to see.

Ya gotta love it. The Olympic Spirit consists of telling people what they want to see/know.

And "cheating" consists of telling some uncomfortable truths.

And let's not forget that spot of bother Canadian Olympic Committee macho-honcho, Marcel Aubut, found himself in shortly afterwards.



Previous DAMMIT JANET! coverage of NoTO2024.

Toronto Mayor Aubut: "Just Trust Me"

John Barber wrote a couple of weeks ago:

Suddenly there's a new mayor in town. You don't know him and you didn't vote for him. But if his threatened coup comes off, he will be the one giving orders in Toronto for the next decade.

And after handing this new civic potentate supreme power, no pipsqueak council or elected mayor will dare complain as he burdens local taxpayers with grandiose monuments of crippling expense and little use.

All hail Marcel Aubut, chairman of the Canadian Olympic Committee! Desperately seeking attention in a perpetual fit of adolescent insecurity, we salute you. Make us do something other people will notice! Lay on the magic hands.

Today, we hear from Mayor Aubut in in his own words.

“There are lots of people...who are there ready to commit to go one step further,” says Marcel Aubut. “But I won’t give you the list.”

Well, why the heck would he? He's not answerable to anybody.

It’s “difficult” for Olympic backers to be transparent at such an early stage, Aubut said, but he promised the public would learn more soon.

Pressed for details, Aubut would only say there will be "momentum" leading up to Sept. 15, the deadline for cities to tell the International Olympic Committee they’re interested in bidding for the 2024 Games.

Torontonians may not remember or care about Marcel Aubut, but the people of Quebec City sure do.

Aubut was President of the Nordiques when the team was sold to an American communications company and moved to Denver in 1995, becoming the Colorado Avalanche. Maclean's Magazine reported that Aubut personally made $15 million from the sale and that t-shirts reading "Marcel Aubut: Wanted Dead or Alive" were not an uncommon sight in Quebec City at the time.

To add insult to the proverbial injury, the team won the Stanley Cup the next year.

And now the "big man -- with the equally large personality" is president of the Canadian Olympic Committee and is pushing to have Toronto sign a blank cheque to host the 2024 Summer Games.

But is that his ultimate goal?

Who knows?

But it would irresponsible not to speculate in light of this (from January 2012).

But where his pro-hockey and Olympic interests happily intersect are in the efforts to finally build Quebec City a new arena. The vision is that the $400-million, 18,000-seat facility would also serve as the centrepiece of a Winter Games bid. But funding for the project—a pastiche of provincial, city, Quebecor and fan money—remains sketchy. And the “target” Olympics is now 2026, which won’t be awarded until 2019.

Aubut, who splits his time between Quebec, Montreal and Toronto, remains an enthusiastic proponent. Quebec, like Winnipeg, is a different city these days, with a more vibrant economy. And it has the capacity to host not just NHL hockey, but the world.

Would there be an element of personal redemption? “You appreciate what you don’t have,” he says.“I really want a team back.”

Got that? The man who profited by $15 million on the sale of the old Nordiques wants another team in Quebec City and he's prepared to plunge Toronto and Quebec City too, presumably, into MASSIVE debt to get it.

No matter that every media pundit in Toronto is against it, joined yesterday by noted urbanologist -- and Toronto resident -- Richard Florida.

Mr. Tory posed the issue correctly when he said: “The most important question I have is, ‘Do you think this would be to the benefit of the people of the city of Toronto?’” Based on every shred of evidence, the answer is No.

Pundits, urbanologists, academics -- all think it's a very bad deal.

Even City Councillors are getting twitchy.

BREAKING Anthony Perruzza calling on Mayor John Tory to have a special council meeting on an Olympic bid #TOpoli pic.twitter.com/iexJRWp5Ne

— Don Peat (@reporterdonpeat) September 9, 2015

And then there's us peons who have little recourse but a petition.

But what Big (Unelected) Mayor Aubut wants, he wants.

And we should just trust him?

Yeah, right.


ADDED: Freedom of Information requests to John Tory's office raise lots more questions.

Round-up: Toronto's Punditocracy Gives Thumbs Down to Olympic Bid

What does Toronto's punditocracy think of an Olympic bid for Toronto?

Not much.

All of them, from all beats (politics, sports, urban affairs, business), say a bid for the 2024 Summer Games would range on a scale from "stupid" to "colosally stupid."

One, Royson James, initially a fervent booster, has now changed his mind.

Here they are in chronological order.

Cathal Kelly, July 27: Hosting the Olympics is a roller coaster of despair.

Chris Selley (1), July 28: Everyone take a deep breath -- Olympic fever is fertile soil for nonsense.

Globe and Mail, Report on Business, no byline, July 28: Dear Toronto: Hosting the Olympics is really really expensive.

Royson James (1) August 7: Bring on the Olympics.

Lorrie Goldstein, August 22: Olympic bid survival guide.

Edward Keenan, August 12: How to keep the T.O. mojo going -- with or without the Olympics.

John Barber, August 25: The case against the Olympics.

Christopher Hume, September 1: Let the Games begin -- Somewhere else.

Royson James (2), September 4: An Olympian effort is beyond us for now.

Chris Selley (2), September 4: Not screwing up the Pan Am Games is no reason to dive headfirst into the mother of all money pits.

The only people in favour of a bid are former elite athletes and people who stand to make money from it.

Here Councillor Shelley Carroll hits the nail on the head.

Councillor Shelley Carroll (Ward 33, Don Valley East) says there is no way city officials have the time to gear up for a 2024 bid. But she understands the enthusiasm in some circles.

“Whether you win or lose, preparing a bid is a business and you make money being the guy who gets to prepare the bid,” she said. “A whole bunch of consultants make money and a whole bunch of retired dignitaries, and retired CEOs, get to have fun with this project and play around with big amounts of public money.”

Gee, I wonder who those people would be?

Here's a hint. Former co-chair of John Tory's campaign, former leader of a Toronto bid, and non-yet-declared member of the non-existent (if you believe them) Bid Committee, Bob Richardson howled over this admittedly mistitled Star article, This time, Bay St. joins Toronto's anti-Olympics team.

Will John Tory go ahead with a bid that will please only elite athletes and just plain elites?

We hope he'll soon give us an answer.


ADDED: It occurred to me that people might want to copy and paste just the links.

Cathal Kelly: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/sports/kelly-the-emotional-rollercoaster-of-hosting-the-olympics/article25728670/
Hosting the Olympics is a roller coaster of despair

Chris Selley (1): http://www.nationalpost.com/m/wp/news/blog.html?b=news.nationalpost.com/toronto/chris-selley-everyone-take-a-deep-breath-olympic-fever-is-fertile-soil-for-nonsense&pubdate=2015-07-29
Everyone take a deep breath -- Olympic fever is fertile soil for nonsense

Globe and Mail, Report on Business, no byline: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/dear-toronto-hosting-the-olympics-is-really-really-expensive/article25731774/
Dear Toronto: Hosting the Olympics is really really expensive

Royson James: http://www.thestar.com/news/city_hall/2015/08/07/bring-on-the-olympics.html
Bring on the Olympics

Lorrie Goldstein: http://www.torontosun.com/2015/08/22/olympic-bid-survival-guide
Olympic bid survival guide

Edward Keenan: http://www.thestar.com/news/gta/2015/08/12/how-to-keep-the-to-mojo-going-with-or-without-the-olympics-keenan.html
How to keep the T.O. mojo going -- with or without the Olympics

John Barber: http://www.thestar.com/opinion/commentary/2015/08/25/the-case-against-an-olympic-bid.html?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter
The case against the Olympics

Christopher Hume: http://www.thestar.com/news/gta/2015/09/01/hume-let-the-games-begin-somewhere-else.html
Let the Games begin -- Somewhere else

Royson James (2): http://www.thestar.com/news/city_hall/2015/09/04/an-olympian-efforts-beyond-us-for-now-james.html
An Olympian effort is beyond us for now

Chris Selley (2): http://news.nationalpost.com/full-comment/chris-selley-not-screwing-up-the-pan-am-games-is-no-reason-to-dive-headfirst-into-the-mother-of-all-money-pits
Not screwing up the Pan Am Games is no reason to dive headfirst into the mother of all money pits


UPDATED September 9/15: Two more.
Richard Florida, Why Toronto Should Say No to the Olympics
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/globe-debate/why-toronto-should-say-no-to-the-olympics/article26263925/

Martin Regg Cohn, Why the Pan Am Games Don't Qualify Us for Olympics
http://www.thestar.com/news/queenspark/2015/09/09/why-pan-am-games-dont-qualify-us-for-olympics-cohn.html

UDATE, September 11/15: Globe and Mail editorial

Toronto Olympics: Insult, Injury, and AmuseRage

The successful NoBoston2024 campaign can teach us much about how to stop this madness.

Here is a 14-minute video featuring sports economist Andrew Zimbalist that I found rivetting and damning. (I normally can sit still for video for about 2-3 minutes max, but this kept me watching.)





He talks about the costs that boosters will talk about, the ones they won't, and how these costs get inevitably overrun.

He also blasts with more facts and figures the mythical benefits boosters tout.

If you're video-averse, here's an interview of him by Richard Florida that covers much of the same ground.

Intro to interview:

Zimbalist, who has studied the economics of stadiums and sports events for the past couple of decades, takes a clear-eyed look at the effects of much-hyped mega-events like the Olympics and the World Cup on the cities that host them. His book [Circus Maximus], subtitled The Economic Gamble Behind Hosting the Olympics and the World Cup, shows in precise detail how these events have become such bad deals.

The pull-quote:
"Attempting to shoehorn a city plan into a scheme subordinated to the demands of the IOC is bound for economic failure."

An almost throw-away point from the video about billboards got me looking further and I found this amazing document: What the IOC demands.

From rather (by comparison) picayune requirements like "Olympic lanes" on streets and highways, guaranteed hotel rooms for Olympic poohbahs, and exemption from customs duties, to rather more stunning demands for the abrogation of democracy, the document reads like a royal edict from some medieval century.

The IOC demands that cities give up control over their civic calendar.

Provide a declaration from the relevant authorities confirming that no other important national or international meeting or event will be taking place in the Host City itself or in its vicinity or in the other competition sites, during the Olympic Winter Games, or for one week immediately before or after the Games.

The IOC demands that the local organizing committee can sign contracts on behalf of the city.

Provide a declaration from your city authorities confirming that the Bid Committee is empowered to represent the Candidate City and indicate the names of the persons and/or their titles who have the authority to sign contracts and other documents (such as the Undertaking and the Host City Contract), on behalf of the city.

And the infamous "Guarantee," aka Blank Cheque, about (inevitable) cost overruns.

Guarantee to cover any potential economic shortfall of the (Organizing Committee for the Olympic Games), including refunds to the IOC of advances in payment or other contributions made by the IOC to the OCOG, which the IOC may have to reimburse to third parties in the event of any contingency such as full or partial cancellation of the Olympic Games.

And the commandeering of all advertising and vending control.

Provide (a) written guarantee(s) from the relevant government authorities confirming that legislation will be passed as soon as possible but no later than 1 January 2020 as necessary to effectively reduce and sanction ambush marketing (e.g. preventing unauthorised third parties from associating directly and/or indirectly with the Games or the Olympic Movement for commercial and/or advertising purposes), and, during the period beginning two weeks before the Opening Ceremony to the Closing Ceremony of the Olympic Winter Games and to eliminate street vending within the vicinity of Games venues, prevent un-authorised ticket resale, prevent un-authorised live sites or similar concepts, and control advertising space (e.g. billboards, advertising on public transport, etc.) as well as air space (to ensure no publicity is allowed in such airspace).

Got that? Not only does the city give over all control and revenue from its own advertising sites, it must "secure binding options from third parties," i.e. owners of private advertising spaces, to acquire -- buy -- their spaces too.

For the Vancouver Winter Games, the city was so cowed by all this folderol that it issued an order to public libraries to eschew any taint of non-official brands.

IOC documents are rife with these indignities -- big and small.

In Norway:

Norwegian citizens were particularly amused/outraged (amuseraged) by the IOC’s diva-like demands for luxury treatment during the hypothetical Games. Here’s a piece in the Norwegian media about the controversy, with translation provided by a generous Norwegian reader named Mats Silberg:
• They demand to meet the king prior to the opening ceremony. Afterwards, there shall be a cocktail reception.
• Drinks shall be paid for by the Royal Palace or the local organizing committee.
• Separate lanes should be created on all roads where IOC members will travel, which are not to be used by regular people or public transportation.
• A welcome greeting from the local Olympic boss and the hotel manager should be presented in IOC members’ rooms, along with fruit and cakes of the season. (Seasonal fruit in Oslo in February is a challenge…)
• The hotel bar at their hotel should extend its hours “extra late” and the minibars must stock Coke products.
...
• IOC members shall be greeted with a smile when arriving at their hotel.
• Meeting rooms shall be kept at exactly 20 degrees Celsius at all times.
• The hot food offered in the lounges at venues should be replaced at regular intervals, as IOC
members might “risk” having to eat several meals at the same lounge during the Olympics.
• “All furniture should be OL-shaped and have Olympic Appearance.“

Those are just a few of the demands listed in a 7,000-plus page document listing the IOC’s requirements for the Games.

(I love the "Olympic furniture" and "seasonal cakes." WTF is a seasonal cake?)

To return to Andrew Zimbalist: the main take-away is that we will effectively lose all control, oversight, and citizen-centred planning of our own damned city over a three-week party for millionaire hucksters and elite professional-turned-temporarily-amateur athletes. NINE YEARS FROM NOW.

And be insulted at every turn.

Say no.

Get involved.
NoTO2024 website.

Download briefing note provided to Toronto City Council on September 1, 2015.

Petition to Toronto City Council and Government of Ontario.

Council scorecard with contact info.


Previous posts:
Owe-lympic Myth: Olympics Are a Good Investment.

Owe-lympics Myths: Reuse Pan Am Venues.

Owe-lympics Myth 5: Health and Fitness Legacy.

Toronto Star and Olympics: Something Stinks

Toronto Councillors' Twitter Accounts

10 People on Twitter

Owe-lympic Myths: Olympics Are a Good Investment for Host City

Today's Owe-lympic Myth:

Myth 1: The Olympics are a good investment for Toronto

Economists that have looked at the Games see no long-term economic benefit.  In a recent NYTimes story, Philip Porter, an economist at the University of South Florida who has studied the impact of sporting events was quoted saying: “The bottom line is, every time we’ve looked — dozens of scholars, dozens of times — we find no real change in economic activity.”

Another specialist in sports economics, Andrew Zimbalist, in his recent book, Circus Maximus: The Economic Gamble Behind Hosting the Olympics and the World Cup concludes that there are "no net economic gains." The wealthy, aka Millionaire Hucksters, profit; the rest of us pay. (In fact, Zimbalist wrote in The Wall Street Journal that Boston would be "lucky" to lose the Games. May Toronto be so lucky.)

Zimbalist cites the London 2012 Games.

They spent over $18 billion (all figures in USD). They took in $5 billion in Olympic revenues, leaving a deficit of $13 billion.

In a preliminary analysis of the just-ended Toronto Pan Am Games (in so far as it's possible without final numbers yet), The Globe and Mail pointed out that while there were winners among local businesses, there were losers as well.

It was a wash.

John Barber, in his column "The case against an Olympic bid," discusses cases, then cites yet another sports economist.

“Public opinion is catching up with the economic evidence,” Stefan Szymanski, professor of sports management and economics at the University of Michigan, noted recently with respect to Boston's abandoned bid.

Yes, the public does seem to be twigging to it: Taxpayers pay. Elites profit.

There is no argument about this.

Seriously. Try to find a reputable economist who will argue against it.



*Third in an ongoing and irregular series.

Previous posts:

Owe-lympics Myths: Reuse Pan Am Venues.

Owe-lympics Myth 5: Health and Fitness Legacy.

Toronto Star and Olympics: Something Stinks

Toronto Councillors' Twitter Accounts

10 People on Twitter

Owe-lympics Myths: Reuse Pan Am Venues*

One of the biggest porky pies hyped by Toronto's millionaire hucksters is that we're good to go for the Olympics because of all the dandy new Pan Am venues.

Or, Myth 5 at NoTO2024.

Myth 5: We can re-use most of the Pan Am venues
Some sites can be re-used, but even under the relaxed Agenda 2020 guidelines there will be major holes. The ACC and Rexall Centre should be ok, but the velodrome and aquatic centre are too small and too inconveniently located. The Rogers Centre is exactly the wrong size for everything.  The athlete's village will have been converted to housing and we need to find somewhere to stick a $1B+ 80,000 seat track and field stadium. The Olympics are much larger than the Pan Am Games and that level of infrastructure just wasn't built.

Mayor John Tory seems to have been sold this bill of goods.

The mayor added that he’s asked for a report from city staff on the usability of Pan Am venues for a potential Olympic Games.

“It would disappoint me if all that investment we made in very excellent facilities was not to be, under these new rules, something to be taken into account, if one wanted to bid.”

Prepare to be disappointed, Mr Mayor.

Chris Selley of the National Post pointed out that "the Pan Am organizers have always been frank: their facilities are not designed for the Olympics." He also says of the 80K+ seat stadium: "Toronto has no earthly need of such a facility."

John Barber weighs in:

Meanwhile in Ontario, taxpayers just spent $450 million on the four most expensive venues for the Pan Am Games, none of which will be good enough for the Olympics, all of which will have to be replaced by larger facilities if Toronto hopes to host in 2024. There is a long list of new stadiums and every variety of gold-plated facility to be built.

Not only are these venues too small -- and will be too old by 2024 -- some are too too far apart.

. . . many of the venues built for Pan Am are so far from Toronto that they may not meet Olympic committee standards. Some events were in Minden Hills (more than two hours from the city), Welland (90 minutes) and Hamilton (one hour).

New ginormous 80-100K seat stadium, new athletes' village, new/upgraded/relocated velodrome, ditto aquatics centre. . . the list goes on.

In short, existing Pan Am venues are just not viable for Olympics. They will need to be upgraded, expanded or replaced.

All costing mega-bucks.

In other words, a successful Olympic bid would create white elephants like the totally ridiculous baseball stadium in Greece (pictured above).




*Second in an irregular and ongoing series.

Previous posts:

Owe-lympics Myth 5: Health and Fitness Legacy.

Toronto Star and Olympics: Something Stinks

Toronto Councillors' Twitter Accounts

10 People on Twitter

Owe-lympic Myths: Health and Fitness Legacy

There are many myths about Olympics among the millionaire hucksters' talking points. On the NoTO2024 website, the Top Ten are listed.

I'm going to take a few of these on, not necessarily in order.

Myth 8: The Olympics will make us healthier
Studies have shown that hosting the Olympics has no measurable impact on fitness and sports participation levels following the Games. There is, however, evidence that funding gets pulled from other regions in the country, causing cutbacks to sports funding that hurt participation.

The claim that Olympics would bolster a healthier, more active population figured large for the London Olympics (with, note, state-funded healthcare like Canada). But a comparison of activity levels pre- and post-Olympics concluded: "no Olympic legacy yet apparent."

I know. You're shocked that two weeks lying around on their couches watching professional-turned-amateur-probably-doped-up athletes doing odd things didn't turn the UK into a nation of svelte, kale-gnawing overachievers.

Furthermore, from London again -- where, unlike Beijing, the media closely monitored claims and outcomes -- money meant for "good causes" was pulled from other areas of the country.

In the UK, they have Camelot, similar to Ontario's Trillium Fund, that distributes lottery dough to good causes. For the Olympics £425 million was diverted to the Olympics.

Jeremy Hunt, the Conservative shadow culture spokesman, said the diversion of lottery money to the Olympics and the public bodies administrative spending meant that 1.1 billion Lottery tickets will be sold this year before the good causes receive a penny.

That's a lot of lottery tickets.

Where does that dough go? The Good Causes award categories are arts, education, environment, health, heritage, sport and voluntary.

Here's sports.

From building new sports venues, to inspiring future generations to participate in sport, lottery funding is helping to grow grassroots sport across the UK with new facilities and coaching that are helping communities to stay healthy, fit and active.

So, the London Games literally sucked money out of grassroots sport for elite sport.

But the London Games were so profitable they paid it all back, right?

Nope.

Three years on from the end of London 2012 and £425 million in raided lottery cash owed to charities and communities across the UK has not been repaid, and the new Government has gone silent on the issue.

Now, this bit should sound familiar to students of Canadian sports history.

However government ministers have continued to drag their feet on the issue – repeatedly suggesting that repayment may take until 2030 or beyond. Despite repeated requests the new Conservative Government has refused to make a statement on this issue. The Directory of Social Change (DSC) has led the Big Lottery Refund campaign, supported by over 3800 charities, which aims for an immediate return of the lottery cash.

Well, heck, that would be only 18 years to repay Olympic debt. We've come a long way from Montreal, eh? They took 30 years to pay off $1.5B even with new taxes.

Bread Not Circuses Redux

If you follow me on Twitter, I apologize. I've been a total pain in the ass lately in my lonely effort to get Torontonians in particular and Canadians in general riled up about a proposed bid for the 2024 Summer Olympics.

Though it's lonely work, I'm finding lots of interesting stuff. And today I found some stuff that is actually encouraging.

In 1989-90, Toronto's millionaire hucksters were really pushing to get the 1996 Summer Olympics, which were ultimately awarded to Atlanta.

Opposed to them was a coalition of women's groups, anti-poverty and housing activists, and labour unions. They called themselves the Bread Not Circuses Coalition.

It was led by Michael Shapcott, still a prominent housing advocate here, and supported, they claimed, by 300,000 people, including then-councillor Jack Layton.

Here's an undated archival recording from the CBC's Inside Track, featuring Shapcott, booster Councillor Kris Korwin-Kuczynski, and for some reason, "playwright" Rick Salutin.

There's a text summary at the link but the clip is only 8-1/2 minutes long and it's interesting, not least for the talking/whining points from Korwin-Kuczynski, which we will no doubt be hearing all over again in the near future.

That script -- jobs, tourism, phantom transit, feel-goodism -- doesn't change.

From the summary:

Toronto should try saying "no" for once. That's the opinion of Bread Not Circuses, one of the strongest anti-Olympic organizations in the world. The local group of anti-poverty activists is embroiled in an uphill fight to scuttle Toronto's bid for the 1996 Summer Olympics. Members argue that the money from the Games - short-term "economic steroids" - never makes it to those that need it most. The Inside Track examines the conflict between hungry markets and hungry mouths.
…
When Toronto lost the bid, anti-Games activists celebrated in an "Olympic-free zone" in the city's portlands, a location that would have become Toronto's Olympic stadium. [Canadian Olympic Committee President Paul] Henderson blamed the loss on Bread Not Circuses and left-leaning city councillors including Jack Layton (later leader of the federal New Democratic Party). Layton had made a point of publicly questioning the bid committee on social issues.

I happen to believe that the coalition was absolutely correct in its opposition but what stands out from this distance is what genius propagandists they were.

(Some say the "fix" was in for Atlanta, headquarters of Coca-Cola after all, but whatever.)

Some context: The greedy, corrupt IOC was still reeling at that point from the fiasco of the 1976 Denver Winter Olympics.

Never heard of them? Of course not. Because they did not happen.

It's a fascinating story of lies, skullduggery, and citizen opposition.

The usual Olympics story, but this time, as in Boston last month successful.

From the link above: "To this day, Denver remains the only city to reject an Olympic bid."

Yes, Denver had "won" the Games, then said "no, thanks." Innsbruck, which had hosted in 1964, had the facilities and stepped up to save the day.

So, even years later, the IOC was a bit jittery about citizen opposition and went so far as to meet with the Bread Not Circuses Coalition in Toronto.

Imagine that, fans of transparency.

Today, Los Angeles released its bid documents. Pretty snappy for a town that just got the word they were now US front-runners at the end of July.

Makes one wonder what was going on quietly behind the scenes.

And makes one wonder what's going on here.

Mayor Tory says he's still making up his mind, while supposedly consulting "community groups," a claim that would be more plausible if he hadn't broken his campaign pledge to make his schedule public. (Promise made in contrast to former Mayor Ford who had to keep his schedule secret because "doing crack" wouldn't have gone over very well.)

There is opposition forming here in Toronto. There's a website, a petition (now with over 250 signatures!!!!), and a hashtag, #NoTO2024.

We are small but growing, and feel honour bound to warn the IOC and local millionaire hucksters.

As before in Toronto, before in Denver, and very recently in Boston, the will, energy, and commitment of the people is discounted at some peril.




Previous DJ! posts:
Toronto Star and Olympics: Something Stinks

Toronto Councillors' Twitter Accounts

10 People on Twitter