Comments on: An Olympic-sized dream

By: Darcy

Darcy — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 20:42:12 +0000

Andre, you offer a new perspective that I’ve never thought of. I, like so many Bhamsters, groaned, loudly when news of LaLa’s bid for 2020 came out. Another hairbrained idea? Yes. Anothe attempt to revitalize the city? Maybe. Whether or not that is his goal, I appreciate your positive outlook.

But it ain’t gonna happen.

I’ve been involved with the Olympics before, both with the USOC and with the IOC and there’s just no way they would ever consider Bham. Yes, they don’t like to pick cities in the same region, much less the same country, very often. And Atlanta taught them a valuable lesson: the Southern U.S. is verrrry hot, and the humidity is unlike anything in Europe. You also have to consider that some cities bidding for 2020 have the support of entire COUNTRIES behind them. Sure, we’d probably get some support from the USOC, but it just isn’t comparable. I’m not gonna go into how serious the bid for the Olympics is and how you basically need to have already begun aggressive improvements to your city when you bid. We can all assume that. But after reading the above article, I’m kinda hoping that Lala’s intentions were everything Andre wrote. And that hope is one of the cool things about the people of Bham.

By: A Galaxy of Facepalm : Sarah Et Cetera

A Galaxy of Facepalm : Sarah Et Cetera — Mon, 25 Aug 2008 18:39:28 +0000

[...] Andre Natta made some very thoughtful remarks a couple months ago. Specifically, the difference between the dream and the reality: The thing is, attempting to win the right to host a Summer Olympics would force the city of Birmingham and its leadership, elected and otherwise, to take a good hard look at the issues that face the city and the region and have significant progress made by a clear and absolute deadline. [...]

By: If you didn’t think Larry was serious… | The Terminal — Birmingham AL’s hub

Sun, 24 Aug 2008 15:13:46 +0000

Well, the story’s made the Sunday New York Times now…

By: I’m the fool | Daily Dixie

I’m the fool | Daily Dixie — Sat, 28 Jun 2008 05:11:48 +0000

[...] attitude about the possibility of the 2020 Olympics coming to Birmingham. The Terminal also chimes in. I also stumbled across this post over on Daily Dixie late last night. While some of the things in [...]

By: what is past is prologue… » you’re not joking?

what is past is prologue… » you’re not joking? — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 17:23:49 +0000

[...] maybe I'm skeptical, because there are some like Musings and Andre over at the Terminal who think that a push like this could be good for Birmingham. I suppose it could be a good thing for Birmingham… I've just seen things continually [...]