Here’s the problem with all things presumed to be preordained … they rarely happen.  I guess someone forgot to tell the IOC that the 2016 Olympic Games were to go to Chicago.  After all,  The One did take time out of his busy schedule to grace the members of the governing body AND to read a speech to them from his teleprompter (!) extolling his virtues (natch) and apologizing for America once again (but, of course).

The governing body of the IOC was so impressed with the Obamas that they eliminated Chicago after the first round of votes.  So much for that!

“The city of Chicago, having obtained the least number of votes, will not participate in the next round.”
-IOC President Jacques Rogge

As reported by Judi McLeod in Canada Free Press

– Thousands of people stood in bewildered silence in downtown Chicago on Friday after the International Olympic Committee surprised everyone by dumping the city from the race for  in the first round of voting.

The vote in Copenhagen was carried on huge television screens set up in the Daley Center to carry what many had hoped would be approval of Chicago as host. It had seemed so likely to many in a city still basking in the blow of hometown Sen. Barack Obama’s election as president.

Instead, Chicago was bounced in the first round, bringing an audible gasp from the crowd. The elimination came so quickly that some would-be revelers weren’t sure what had happened and they asked bystanders if they had heard what they thought they heard.

Cheer up Chicago.  Here’s something I know that you don’t.  You’ve just missed a bullet, a very big bullet.

I’ve been in sports marketing for a very long time having designed and executed retail merchandising programs for the Olympics, Super Bowl, World Cup Soccer, America’s Cup.  My companies were part of the 1984 Summer Games in Los Angeles, the ones almost ruined by Obama’s lame brained predecessor, Jimmy Carter.

People have forgotten that it was the 1979  Soviet intervention/invasion of Afghanistan that spurred Jimmy Carter to issue an ultimatum.  The United States would boycott the 1980 Olympics if Soviet troops did not withdraw from the country by 12:01 A.M.  The Soviets didn’t leave.

The consequences were that 1984 Olympics were boycotted by the Soviets (now Russia) in retaliation for the U.S. boycott of the 1980 Olympic Games.  East Germany, Cuba, and fourteen other countries boycotted the Games. The loses to the Olympic athletes and to numerous companies impacted by politics were immense.

When I compare the execution of 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta with the execution of the 1984 Games in Los Angeles there is little comparison.  The Los Angeles Olympic Organizing Committee (LAOOC)  was headed by the amazing Peter Ueberroth who gave a  $150 million dollar surplus to the taxpayers in California once the Games were over. The 1984 Games were executed with style and sophistication.  No street vending was allowed in Southern California to clutter up and take away from the merchandising and message of the Games.

Fast forward to Atlanta, Mayor Campbell and his cronies, and the 1996 Olympics.  By the time the Games began, the City of Atlanta looked like a giant flea market with carts, vending tents, and temporary signs everywhere.  If there was an inch of space that could be sold it was put out there and people with absolutely no experience bought into the dream and lost big time.  Sports and event marketing, you see, is not for the faint of heart or for novices with visions of dollar signs dancing in their heads.

When the 1996 Games came to an end, the IOC’s past President, Juan Antonio Samaranch declared Atlanta’s efforts exceptional, not the usual best ever because they weren’t.

So Chicago, let me say again, you dodged a bullet.  Your feelings may be a little bruised right now, but that is definitely better than Montreal which wound up $1 billion in the red, after the 1976 Games or Moscow, which required $9 billion to stage the 1980 Games.  Your image is intact.  Now you can focus on the real problems in your city.

Sorry to say, I believe the IOC could hear the sound of “cha-ching” echoing softly in the background when the Obamas’ talked … I think they heard and witnessed people more focused on self-aggrandizement than the Olympic movement and what the ideal (not always realized) represents.  How gauche!