Players from ten countries came into Western New York for the two-week competition. With the players came coaches, fans and reporters. A Swedish writer, on his blog, said that coming to Buffalo was "like falling into a scene from the movie 28 Days Later (minus all the zombies)." He spoke with a Finnish colleague before he came into town, who told him,
"The city is a shit hole. I've spent one night there and decided that it was not only my first there, but also my last"
At the end of this tournament. the USA finished in third place. Both Sweden and Finland did not get on the medal podium. Maybe the Americans had a very good team. Or maybe the Scandinavians, and the other countries' athletes, were so intimidated by being in a shithole that they couldn't compete. The only two countries that didn't mind being in a cold, dreary place were gold-medalists Russia (one big cold dreary place) and silver-medalist Canada (ditto).
If the USA had such a good home-field advantage in this small tournament, imagine what it would be like if we hosted a major athletic gathering.
Which brings me to...
Yes, I am organizing a bid to get the Olympic Games in Western New York. I had to sell a few of my shares in JWN to pay for it (see earlier blog to find out what that is), but it will be well worth it.
Although some of the athletic venues will be in the suburbs, I want to get as many sports played in "the Shithole" as I can. Thanks for your offer, Niagara County. I really appreciate it, North Campus. But these games will be centered within the city limits.
Take a good look at the top photo below. I did not photoshop anything green into the picture. Those are vacant lots in between the few houses in that three-block area in the Fillmore-Peckham area. Now, we can raze about 30 structures and build out Olympic Stadium on that site.
Another thing you see: more vacant lots. Since it's the Summer Olympics, those can be our parking lots. If you're worried about mud in the event of rain, we can take the asphalt from the two streets we tore up and use it as gravel in the lots.
You may be asking yourself: what do we do with this stadium after the Games? This would be the new home for Buffalo's pro football team. Think about it. We used to play in an inner-city stadium. Then we moved to the suburbs. Now, we move back to the inner-city. Plus, we would need more area since the Canadian Football League fields are 40 feet wider and about 120 feet longer (You don't think the NFL will still be in town in 2020, do you?).
Can you imagine the 26-mile marathon being run through the Emslie section of town? The top ten finishers would be so scared they might all break the Olympic record. How about Greco-Roman wrestling inside the Broadway Market? Equestrian in Genesee Moselle and Road Cycling in Willert Park. I can see the medals piling up now. If you're going to the First Ward to watch kayaking, do NOT throw your empties at the competitors on the Buffalo River.
In a lot of other Olympic cities, there are billions of dollars spent on security. Not here. The terrorists don't want to go to the Commodore Perry Projects - er - Athlete's Village. And we can easily house the foreign press in some of those houses still left up around the new stadium. Lots of space for their satellites and trucks.
Maybe instead of a cauldron we can light up a vacant house on the East Side as an Olympic torch. We'll get Irv Weinstein out of retirement to talk about it, like he did on Eyewitness News. (A fearless First Ward firebug starts a 12-alarmer that had Buffalo blaze busters on their terribly tired toes all night).
There's still a lot of other things to work out, like the merchandising of the mascots. I found a cartoon online that is a start - two bison who drink beer.
As for the names of the Olympic mascots, I'm leaning towards Jimmy and Byron (after two Buffalo mayors).
But, at one point, Lake Placid was just some guy's dream.
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