SF 2016 Bid Dies
7:00 AM -- San Francisco's bid for the 2016 Olympics is dead, according to a release yesterday that boils down to, "Dude, you suck."
That would be directed at San Francisco 49ers owner John York, for deciding to move his football team to Santa Clara, in Silicon Valley. York's response is, basically, "Told you so."
The deal is that just after the Oakland A's began planning a migration to Silicon Valley, York outlined a plan to vacate San Francisco. That means abandoning the stadium building/renovating plans that the 2016 bid was based on.
The press release quoted Scott Givens, managing director of the 2016 Bid Committee, saying: "Since the 49ers announcement, the question we have had to answer is, 'with the damage done to our perceived and real ability to deliver venue certainty, is it still possible to win the USOC's confidence by April 2007?' After thoroughly examining all of our options for an Olympic stadium venue, the answer, sadly, is no."
Just to rub it in, the release goes on to list all the things San Francisco was willing to offer up for 2016, but now won't, including:
Even if the football teams here suck, it's nice to know we can have fun watching the ownership play their games.
— Craig Matsumoto, Senior Editor, Light Reading
That would be directed at San Francisco 49ers owner John York, for deciding to move his football team to Santa Clara, in Silicon Valley. York's response is, basically, "Told you so."
The deal is that just after the Oakland A's began planning a migration to Silicon Valley, York outlined a plan to vacate San Francisco. That means abandoning the stadium building/renovating plans that the 2016 bid was based on.
The press release quoted Scott Givens, managing director of the 2016 Bid Committee, saying: "Since the 49ers announcement, the question we have had to answer is, 'with the damage done to our perceived and real ability to deliver venue certainty, is it still possible to win the USOC's confidence by April 2007?' After thoroughly examining all of our options for an Olympic stadium venue, the answer, sadly, is no."
Just to rub it in, the release goes on to list all the things San Francisco was willing to offer up for 2016, but now won't, including:
- An Olympic village by the Bay (at "Hunters Point Shipyard," which invokes the name of one of the most dangerous neighborhoods in the Bay Area);
- Game venues within a 20-minute drive for 80 percent of the atheletes (is that with or without traffic?);
- And massive corporate sponsorship including names like eBay Inc. (Nasdaq: EBAY) and Oracle Corp. (Nasdaq: ORCL) (um... hard to argue with that one).
Even if the football teams here suck, it's nice to know we can have fun watching the ownership play their games.
— Craig Matsumoto, Senior Editor, Light Reading
