The Olympics in Milwaukee?

[Saintsfan]

I think Boston could make a great Winter Olympics host city. It seems as if the IOC is edging towards cities, rather than winter resorts, hosting the games, and providing their is good skiing around New England, I think that could be a great venue.

[Foxxtrot44]

I think Boston could make a great Winter Olympics host city. It seems as if the IOC is edging towards cities, rather than winter resorts, hosting the games, and providing their is good skiing around New England, I think that could be a great venue.

Hence why the next 2 are in...resorts?...Admittedly Russia has really turned Sochi into a nice city, but that was BECAUSE of the games rather than what attracted them. Certainly in the first decade of the 2000's the IOC trended city, but so far for the next games (and 2022 will be telling...can Oslo beat Davos?!?!?!) they seem to be getting back to resort style locations.

[Saintsfan]

I think Boston could make a great Winter Olympics host city. It seems as if the IOC is edging towards cities, rather than winter resorts, hosting the games, and providing their is good skiing around New England, I think that could be a great venue.

Hence why the next 2 are in...resorts?...Admittedly Russia has really turned Sochi into a nice city, but that was BECAUSE of the games rather than what attracted them. Certainly in the first decade of the 2000's the IOC trended city, but so far for the next games (and 2022 will be telling...can Oslo beat Davos?!?!?!) they seem to be getting back to resort style locations.

Sochi is a city. Over the last 30 years of Winter Olympics, only really Albertville could be described as a resort, the rest are all urban areas. Pyeongyang is the exception rather than a rule.

[Magnus]

Sochi is a city. Over the last 30 years of Winter Olympics, only really Albertville could be described as a resort, the rest are all urban areas. Pyeongyang is the exception rather than a rule.

Actually, it's Pyongchang.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2018_Winter_Olympics

[crashcarson15]

Yeah, Pyongyang is that North Korean capital city...

[Foxxtrot44]

Sochi is a city. Over the last 30 years of Winter Olympics, only really Albertville could be described as a resort, the rest are all urban areas. Pyeongyang is the exception rather than a rule.

Sochi is a Resort Town. It's an unusually large one though...having as many people as the entire Nagano Prefecture...and those two alone are ten times the size of Lillehammer.

Over history the direction for the Winter games has favoured smaller cities and resorts. There's no science to the picks, but the 70's and 80's Games tended to be in bigger cities, while the 90's went smaller (comparitively). The Aught's went big again and are being followed by small again...so maybe in the 20's it will trend large again. There's my theory.

[Brian in Boston]

If you want to blame somebody, blame the Massachusetts state government for giving the Pats such a sweetheart deal to stay because they were going to move to Hartford otherwise.

"weetheart deal"? Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha!!!

Bob Kraft financed construction of Gillette Stadium himself, taking out loans with commercial lenders. Building the stadium cost $325 million. The land cost $30 million. Interest costs on the commercial loans during the two years of construction amounted to another $30 million. Kraft received $150 million from the NFL's G-3 stadium financing program, with the money being paid back to the league out of 34% of the revenue generated through the sale of club seats in the stadium.

The Commonwealth of Massachusetts made $70 million in infrastructure improvements - including work on Route 1 - surrounding the stadium. However, Kraft agreed to pay $4 million in cost overruns on the infrastructure work. Further, he also agreed to reimburse the state for the infrastructure work by making annual payments of approximately $1.5 million over 20 years, followed by continuing annual payments beyond that point of nearly $750,000 per year.

Given the exorbitant amount of public funding that normally winds-up going into the construction of modern pro sports facilities, if anyone received a "sweetheart deal" regarding the construction of Gillette Stadium, it was the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. The state got off with investing comparatively little public funding into the project compared to other similar facilities... and stands to get paid back for what it did provide.

[pmoehrin]

If you want to blame somebody, blame the Massachusetts state government for giving the Pats such a sweetheart deal to stay because they were going to move to Hartford otherwise.

"weetheart deal"? Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha!!!

Bob Kraft financed construction of Gillette Stadium himself, taking out loans with commercial lenders. Building the stadium cost $325 million. The land cost $30 million. Interest costs on the commercial loans during the two years of construction amounted to another $30 million. Kraft received $150 million from the NFL's G-3 stadium financing program, with the money being paid back to the league out of 34% of the revenue generated through the sale of club seats in the stadium.

The Commonwealth of Massachusetts made $70 million in infrastructure improvements - including work on Route 1 - surrounding the stadium. However, Kraft agreed to pay $4 million in cost overruns on the infrastructure work. Further, he also agreed to reimburse the state for the infrastructure work by making annual payments of approximately $1.5 million over 20 years, followed by continuing annual payments beyond that point of nearly $750,000 per year.

Given the exorbitant amount of public funding that normally winds-up going into the construction of modern pro sports facilities, if anyone received a "sweetheart deal" regarding the construction of Gillette Stadium, it was the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. The state got off with investing comparatively little public funding into the project compared to other similar facilities... and stands to get paid back for what it did provide.

I know what the story was and I know the deal Hartford was offering him which on paper looked better then the one Boston was giving him.

I don't buy into the idea that Robert Kraft kept the Patriots in Foxboro purely out of the goodness of his heart, or faith to the community, or that some EPA report on the site by itself was enough to derail the Hartford deal. All I know is that you can pour over this kind of stuff for hours on end and you'll be lucky to get 10% of what actually happened.

My own is the land around Gillette Stadium in it of itself is worth almost as much as the Patriots, but if its not developed its worthless. I think Massachusetts helped out alot in developing that land a ton. The infrastructure were certainly part of it, but I think there was more to it then just that. What that is I don't know. Could be getting better deals on contracts, tax breaks, interest free loans to build, any number of things, and I don't care all that much to find out what it was/is either, because its already done, there's nothing I can do about it and I'm not driving myself crazy trying to figure it out. Worse case scenario I'm totally off on what happened, in which case so what because I had no say in any of it.

[Brian in Boston]

I think Massachusetts helped out alot in developing that land a ton. The infrastructure were certainly part of it, but I think there was more to it then just that.

Based upon my own experience researching the negotiations that took place between the Krafts and the Commonwealth of Massachusetts prior to Gillette Stadium being built, you'd be wrong. The Commonwealth of Massachusetts paid for $70 million in infrastructure improvements surrounding Gillette Stadium and, well all is said and done, the Kraft family will end up paying the state back through the annual fees I mentioned.

Trust me, as a member of the media in Massachusetts during Kraft's protracted stadium negotiations with government officials in Massachusetts, Connecticut and Rhode Island, I was convinced that there had to be something more to the deal that Kraft ultimately signed. My colleagues and I engaged in exhaustive investigative work and never turned up the slightest inkling of there being a surreptitious "sweetening" of the deal for Kraft... at least not on the part of state government.

Could be getting better deals on contracts, tax breaks, interest free loans to build, any number of things...

I have little doubt that in the years since Kraft built Gillette Stadium, he has made the most of the goodwill that surrounded his decision to keep the Patriots in Massachusetts, as well as the team's on-field success. Whether that's manifested itself in the Krafts being able to negotiate "better deals on contracts" with unions, contractors and vendors, or "interest free loans" with commercial lenders, I can't say for certain. It wouldn't shock me.

I have heard that he negotiated tax breaks with the Town of Foxboro when it came time to develop Patriot Place. Hell, he's currently negotiating with the Town of Foxboro in anticipation of expanding Patriot Place: he wants to reduce the town's share of revenue from non-Patriots and Revolution ticket sales for events at the stadium, he's seeking guaranteed, up-front support from town boards and officials when it comes to revising certain zoning laws, and he wants a pledge of advocacy from local elected officials - including legislators - in seeking the establishment of a permanent, full-time commuter rail station adjacent to Gillette Stadium and Patriot Place. Again, that doesn't surprise me as it is part of the give-and-take that routinely goes on between large businesses and the municipalities in which they're located.

Still, that's a far cry from claiming that Kraft received a promise of such breaks from the Commonwealth of Massachusetts in exchange for keeping his NFL franchise in the Bay State. Then-Massachusetts House Speaker Tom Finneran took an almost perverse pleasure in positioning himself as the politician willing to draw the line on exorbitant spending of public dollars on facilities that benefit privately-held pro sports franchises. Further, it also falls far short of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts lobbying on behalf of Kraft to gain "better deals on contracts", offering state "tax breaks", or making "interest free loans to build".

[HedleyLamarr]

Didn't the Atlanta Olympics farm out some events to, like, eastern Tennessee or something?

Yeah, the whitewater events were held in eastern Tennessee, and there were soccer games played in Birmingham, Orlando, and Washington DC. I think Miami, too.