New York out early...London gets the 2012 games.

[SunDeck]

Paris and London were the finalists after Madrid was voted out. New York went out before that and Moscow was dropped earliest. The French are stunned; evidently they thought they had it wrapped up.

[RedsBaron]

I hope London gets the games, although given the security risks associated with the games, getting the games could be a mixed blessing.
If New York really wants the games, it should try to get them in 2016.

[Red Leader]

I blame Donald Trump and the Apprentice. That stupid chick forgot the American Flag!!!

Actually, I'm glad the games aren't in NY. That's the last thing that place and our national security needs is several million foreigners decending on it.

[KronoRed]

I'm disappointed but not surprised, with all the loathing heaved at Atlanta and Salt Lake I wonder if the US will get the games again in the next 30 years.

London is good, I can go..they speak English WOOO

[RedFanAlways1966]

I guess London...
* Offered more free jobs & educations to relatives of the organizing committee.
* Gave more bloody $100 handshakes than tOSU Booster Club.

The French are stunned; evidently they thought they had it wrapped up.

Pity the poor French.

[Reds/Flyers Fan]

If NY couldn't land the games, what made Nick Vehr think that Cincinnati had any shot whatsoever at the games. Really, how could we have competed with London and Paris? What a debacle that was.

[KronoRed]

He probably felt that they could pull an Atlanta and be a spoiler, sadly the days of non-massive city's hosting the summer games are over.

[Reds/Flyers Fan]

Originally Posted by KronoRed

He probably felt that they could pull an Atlanta and be a spoiler, sadly the days of non-massive city's hosting the summer games are over.

I don't think non-massive cities, especially in the U.S., have the capacity to handle the summer games. What if Cincinnati had won out? Where would tens of thousands of people stay? Downtown turns to gridlock if there is a Bengals game during Oktoberfest and we want to host the Olympics?

And some of those proposed venues for the games were absurd. The day an Olympic contest is ever held at the Nutter Center, US Bank Arena or Princeton High School will be a sad day for the Olympics indeed. One of the proposals actually called for men's basketball to be played at a domed Nippert Stadium.

To think that some people were duped into believing that Cincinnati had a chance.

[cincinnati chili]

This is great news. Having experienced the Democratic Convention in Boston, I'm completely against events this big ever coming to congested U.S. major cities.

[Unassisted]

I heard a commentator speculating that the US not getting these games was a symptom of ill will that the administration is creating with its current brand of diplomacy. Without being partisan, is it that hard to imagine that selection committee members from Germany and France would be unfavorably inclined to vote for a US venue just now?

[Reds/Flyers Fan]

I don't think it's ill will. Whoever said the U.S. has to host one out of every four Olympics. London is very deserving of the chance to host the games. The U.S. has had it in Atlanta, Salt Lake, Los Angeles and Lake Placid in recent years.

[MWM]

Originally Posted by Reds/Flyers Fan

I don't think non-massive cities, especially in the U.S., have the capacity to handle the summer games. What if Cincinnati had won out? Where would tens of thousands of people stay? Downtown turns to gridlock if there is a Bengals game during Oktoberfest and we want to host the Olympics?

And some of those proposed venues for the games were absurd. The day an Olympic contest is ever held at the Nutter Center, US Bank Arena or Princeton High School will be a sad day for the Olympics indeed. One of the proposals actually called for men's basketball to be played at a domed Nippert Stadium.

To think that some people were duped into believing that Cincinnati had a chance.

Cincinnati would have been the central hub, but few of the events would have actually been in Cincinnati. they would have held things in Indianpolis, Columbus, Cleveland, Lexington, Dayton, etc....

I still think it was dumb, but Nick Vehr once came and gave a presentation at a corporate event i was at and it actually wasn't that far-fetched that they could host the Olympics. Now, it WAS incredibly far-fetched to think they could actually win it.

[15fan]

Here is my advice to each and every one of you:

Start saving now and plan on taking your summer vacation in 2012 to London.

(If you simply save $5 / week every week for the next 7 years, and earn a meager 5% annual return on your savings, you'll have roughly $2,500 at your disposal for London 2012. Add in what you'd normally spend on a summer vacation that year, as well as scaled back holiday / birthday / anniversary plans in 2012, and you'd have plenty of jack for airfare, accomodations, and tickets to various events.)

Witnessing first-hand the '96 Summer Games was truly one of the more memorable experiences of my life. Everyone should experience it at least once.

[SunDeck]

Originally Posted by MWM

Cincinnati would have been the central hub, but few of the events would have actually been in Cincinnati. they would have held things in Indianpolis, Columbus, Cleveland, Lexington, Dayton, etc....

I still think it was dumb, but Nick Vehr once came and gave a presentation at a corporate event i was at and it actually wasn't that far-fetched that they could host the Olympics. Now, it WAS incredibly far-fetched to think they could actually win it.

Vehr used to talk up the idea that they could actually host the games, but I figured his goal was to improve the profile of the region. If their bid could have even gotten considered in the later rounds, it would have been good for the city. Sure, it was totally crackpottish, but why not drum up a little optimism. God knows Cincinnati has precious little of it.

[Roy Tucker]

http://news.enquirer.com/apps/pbcs.d...70386/1082/SPT

July 7, 2005
London wins Olympics, and we sigh
Remember how we once dreamed of a Cincinnati 2012 Games?

By Paul Daugherty
Enquirer staff writer

Depending on how you viewed him and Cincinnati's bid for the 2012 Summer Olympics, Nick Vehr was either a passionate visionary or a self-promoting crank. Who else could stare at the aquamarine splendor of Darling Harbor in Sydney, Australia, during the 2000 Games, as Vehr did, and see the Ohio River?

Somehow, London got the 2012 Games on Wednesday and we didn't. There's no accounting for taste.

There isn't even a sense of "What if" about it. Cincinnati's cheeky little run ended in October 2001, when the U.S. Olympic Committee cut its list of bid cities from eight to four. The 'Nati missed the first cut. Some were disappointed. Few were surprised.

There would be no StadiumWorld on the river, no dome on Nippert Stadium, no riverboats serving as floating hotels. This fantastic, five-year, $5 million quest of Vehr's was done.

All but the questing.

Some of us never thought Vehr was foolish. Even as we laughed at the notion of a dome on Nippert - what's next, the Maisonette leaving downtown for Montgomery? - we loved Vehr's capacity for loud dreaming. Somebody's gotta do it, or else you end up with a dead downtown, a fractious city council and a lousy national reputation.

Who's doing the dreaming now?

When the USOC killed our flight of fancy, Vehr said this: "People in Cincinnati had the courage to think a really big thought and to push ourselves to do more than we ever thought we could. We need to do more of that in Cincinnati."

OK. Who's doing it?

Say what you will about Vehr and his Olympic quest. At least he had a vision that extended beyond big parking lots, bigger holes in the ground and moving a fountain a few feet.

The Olympic plan he presented to the USOC included everything we should be doing now: cooperating, imagining, growing and building a regional identity.

Or, as Vehr put it Wednesday: "If we'd won the bid, there'd be power cranes on the Banks, serious discussion of light rail. We'd have to be cooperating with each other, because that's the only way everything would have gotten done.''

Was the notion of a Cincinnati Olympics a stretch? Of course. Was the philosophy needed to pull it off a stretch? Hardly. It's more relevant now than it was then.

Nick Vehr quit City Council in 1996 to pursue the Olympics. Vehr's a vice president for the Cincinnati USA Regional Chamber. He's charged with economic development. He has the same enthusiasm and optimism for Cincinnati he had nine years ago, when everyone laughed at him.

He says in hindsight he realizes Cincinnati's bid had little chance. The USOC wanted the "glamour'' cities on the coasts to compete for the American bid. Vehr doesn't question the effort, but he does wonder about its legacy.

"Hard to say. Does the algebra class you took 20 years ago make you a better businessman today?" Vehr said. "It's always important to make your head hurt thinking bigger thoughts than you thought you were capable of thinking. You're going to be better if someone's constantly challenging you to get better."

For a while, Nick Vehr challenged us. After a time, the success of Cincinnati 2012's effort became secondary to what it represented. The effort was worth it, even if the lesson hasn't stuck.

Vehr watched the celebration in London on Wednesday, as the winner was announced in Singapore, and felt the smallest dance in his throat and gut.

"Wouldn't it be cool," he wondered, "if we were in Singapore right now?"

Some events are out of a man's control and, ultimately, beyond his grasp. His reach, though, shouldn't be tamed.

"I'd love to go to London in 2012," Vehr said. "I'll probably be thinking we could have done it better."

E-mail pdaugherty@enquirer.com