The story of Detroit's bid for the 1968 Olympics

[CassTechGrad]

"The NAACP official position supported the 1968 Olympic effort, even if it contained flaws or needed improvement. In October of 1963, the NAACP and the ultra-militant UHURU, a small organization of Wayne State University students, used an Olympics rally by the city to protest the Common Council’s failure to pass the Open Occupancy ordinance that would have prohibited discriminatory practices in real estate. The protest was held in front of the City-County building. The NAACP organized approximately fifty pickets while others like the UHURU booed and jeered during the playing of the National Anthem. Authorities charged six of the protesters with disturbing the peace. Detroiter’s, both black and white, were disgusted with the booing of the National Anthem even initiating a three day fast by a Madam Vickerstaff." [[International Society of Olympic Historians)

https://isoh.org/cause-view/the-olympics-what-olympics/
https://www.kines.umich.edu/news-eve...etroit%20Riots.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/winds...ames-1.7278678
https://www.fox2detroit.com/video/1492718

[canuck]

I’m guessing it’s your call whether the booing of the National anthem takes precedence over open discrimination in atrocity . An anthem is symbolic, people are a little more than that, but hey…

[401don]

Had Detroit won the bid, which I'm sure was extremely unlikely, and the riots still occured in '67, the Olympics would have been moved anyway.

[Danny]

It's not just the NAACP and UHURU Protests that cause Detroit to lose the 68' Olympics. It's the 67' riots and the lack of programs to how the feed the athletes that was the main problem.

[401don]

It's not just the NAACP and UHURU Protests that cause Detroit to lose the 68' Olympics. It's the 67' riots and the lack of programs to how the feed the athletes that was the main problem.

Ah, no. Olympics would have been awarded several years earlier.

[Danny]

Ah, no. Olympics would have been awarded several years earlier.

But it came with the problem of the race riots, protests and food supplies. The IOC didn't like Detroit image problems with civil and human rights problems. So, they voted for the bid one last time and chose Mexico City.

[Lowell]

It's not just the NAACP and UHURU Protests that cause Detroit to lose the 68' Olympics. It's the 67' riots and the lack of programs to how the feed the athletes that was the main problem.

Mexico City had its protests too, including one that led to a famous massacre ten days prior to the opening of the 1968 Olympics. The show goes on.

The Tlatelolco massacre was a military massacre committed by the Mexican Armed Forces against the students of the National Autonomous University of Mexico [[UNAM), the National Polytechnic Institute [[IPN), and other universities in Mexico.

The massacre followed a series of large demonstrations called the Mexican Movement of 1968 and is considered part of the Mexican Dirty War, when the U.S.-backed Institutional Revolutionary Party [[PRI) government violently repressed political and social opposition. The event occurred ten days before the opening ceremony of the 1968 Summer Olympics, which were carried out normally.

On October 2, 1968 in the Tlatelolco section of Mexico City, the Mexican Armed Forces opened fire on a group of unarmed civilians in the Plaza de las Tres Culturas who were protesting the upcoming Olympics. The Mexican government and media claimed that the Armed Forces had been provoked by protesters shooting at them,[1] but government documents made public since 2000 suggest that snipers had been employed by the government.

The number of deaths resulting from the event is disputed. According to U.S. national security archives, American analyst Kate Doyle documented the deaths of 44 people; however, estimates of the actual death toll range from 300 to 400, with eyewitnesses reporting hundreds dead. Additionally, the head of the Federal Directorate of Security reported that 1,345 people were arrested.
Source

[jiminnm]

The decision on Mexico City was made some time before the 1967 riots. From CTG's first cite discussing the 1963 IOC meeting.

"What was surprising in Baden-Baden was not that the supposed favorite Detroit had lost to Mexico City. What was shocking was how the seven-time veteran candidate campaigned as a neophyte and the first-time delegation performed with seasoned skill. It was astounding how the Detroiters were woefully unprepared to lobby at the convention; that for all their supposed experience in the process they had so few contacts with the IOC, and were unaware of and surprised by the need for “gratuities” for IOC members. “We always have gone on the premise that it was necessary to stand in line to be considered by the IOC,” concluded Matthaei following the final vote, “We found out that is wrong.”[36] Matthaei and the DOC assumed that they were finally at the front of the line in 1963 and only needed to be present to be designated the host city. The Mexican candidates understood that success was more likely if you complimented and tipped the Maître’d."

[401don]

The decision on Mexico City was made some time before the 1967 riots.

I already stated the obvious. Any Olympic decision has to be made several years earlier for a city to prepare. It didn't sink in however.

[WKL]

The book Once in a Great City had a good account of Detroit's bid for the Olympics

[Danny]

And Detroit is not going to get another Olympic bid for 100 years.

[mikeg19]

And Detroit is not going to get another Olympic bid for 100 years.

Honestly, why would anyone want it? Cities are literally backing out of hosting due to the insane regulations and standards that the IOC demands to host the event. The cost of the Games has gone from hundreds of millions to billions to tens of billions to host. So aside from the "prestige" of hosting it, what is the benefit?

The way to make this whole thing successful and not plunge entire countries into poverty is simple:

1 fixed location for each the Summer and Winter Olympics. Upgrade them as needed but keep the locations and reuse them over and over.

Hell, if you want, pick a location on every continent and use them continuously so nobody feels left out. Otherwise, you'll just be seeing every Olympic/World Cup/etc played in the Middle East where that free flowing oil money and cheap labor will get every bid.

[canuck]

Honestly, why would anyone want it? Cities are literally backing out of hosting due to the insane regulations and standards that the IOC demands to host the event. The cost of the Games has gone from hundreds of millions to billions to tens of billions to host. So aside from the "prestige" of hosting it, what is the benefit?

The way to make this whole thing successful and not plunge entire countries into poverty is simple:

1 fixed location for each the Summer and Winter Olympics. Upgrade them as needed but keep the locations and reuse them over and over.

Hell, if you want, pick a location on every continent and use them continuously so nobody feels left out. Otherwise, you'll just be seeing every Olympic/World Cup/etc played in the Middle East where that free flowing oil money and cheap labor will get every bid.

What a party pooper.

Why wouldn't you want to spend a cool ten billion on a two week event for tickets you won't be able to afford?

[mikeg19]

What a party pooper.

Why wouldn't you want to spend a cool ten billion on a two week event for tickets you won't be able to afford?

Because I can barely afford to take my family of 5 to a regular season Lions game. lol Could you imagine what $10B cash infused into city infrastructure could accomplish? Pipe dream.

Not to get off topic, but the in home tv viewing experience has kinda wiped out the going to the game experience. It was fun to go down to the Joe for $35 and watch a game when we were watching standard definition on a 32" tube tv. Don't get me wrong, I still love going to a game in person once or twice a year if I can.

Now I can get a 4K 75" for the cost it is to take my family to 1 game. Plus you get all the replays, fast forward thru the commercials, eat/drink my own items, and never wait in a line for a bathroom or an hour in a parking garage. As I'm typing this I'm realizing I've turned into Clint Eastwood get off my lawn guy...........

[CassTechGrad]

[401don]

Don't get me wrong, I still love going to a game in person once or twice a year if I can.

Now I can get a 4K 75" for the cost it is to take my family to 1 game. Plus you get all the replays, fast forward thru the commercials, eat/drink my own items, and never wait in a line for a bathroom or an hour in a parking garage. As I'm typing this I'm realizing I've turned into Clint Eastwood get off my lawn guy...........

You're not wrong. What's funny is when you go to a game most people aren't even paying attention. The families are fixated on the music and trying to get their kid or themselves on the big screen and the young people are standing around all the bars talking and drinking.

[JBMcB]

1 fixed location for each the Summer and Winter Olympics. Upgrade them as needed but keep the locations and reuse them over and over.

I don't think limiting it to two cities would be politically feasible, but a rotating roster of a half dozen or so cities would be.

This is especially true for the winter Olympics where there are, maybe, a dozen regions in the entire world well suited for them. China picked the best location in the country, and it was an absolute disaster. The man-made snow on the fake super-G run turned into ice halfway through the day.

[mikeg19]

I don't think limiting it to two cities would be politically feasible, but a rotating roster of a half dozen or so cities would be.

This is especially true for the winter Olympics where there are, maybe, a dozen regions in the entire world well suited for them. China picked the best location in the country, and it was an absolute disaster. The man-made snow on the fake super-G run turned into ice halfway through the day.

I could get behind something like that. Half dozen locations for both Summer/Winter. Participating countries all pay into the pot to maintain them or upgrade as needed. I haven't seen too many success stories about reusing the stadiums/venues as every single host city has shown at the onset of being awarded the games. I think Beijing comes to mind about still utilizing their major builds from their Olympics and demoing the remainders or converting them to housing.

[mikeg19]

You're not wrong. What's funny is when you go to a game most people aren't even paying attention. The families are fixated on the music and trying to get their kid or themselves on the big screen and the young people are standing around all the bars talking and drinking.

To each their own, you pay for the ticket, do as you may. But I don't understand going to the arena.....to sit at a bar in the arena....to watch the game on a television.

[canuck]

I could get behind something like that. Half dozen locations for both Summer/Winter. Participating countries all pay into the pot to maintain them or upgrade as needed. I haven't seen too many success stories about reusing the stadiums/venues as every single host city has shown at the onset of being awarded the games. I think Beijing comes to mind about still utilizing their major builds from their Olympics and demoing the remainders or converting them to housing.

We can do better than that. Montreal’s olympic stadium. The retractable stadium roof made of Kevlar was completed years after the games. The thing ripped a number of times, once during a car show. The architect whi had designed a number of impressive stadiums in France designed it with little forethought about the snow situation, which is a distinct feature of winter here. We can’t do without snow, we need our fix.

So, years after dismantling the roof, the government decided to build a permanent roof at a reasonable cost of 870 million dollars over a four year schedule. They need to reinforce the ring first before the structural steel goes up.

Not sure a home baseball team will ever play again, but hey, Taylor Swift will grace the stage for a two nighter with tickets at a two hundred in the bleachers, a thousand in a little closer price tag. The whole thing has a narcotic almost paralyzing effect on me. I don’t get it.

Adjacent to the stadium, there was the velodrome that was meant to remain as a training facility but was torn up a number of years after the olympics. They replaced it with the biodome, a space devised to recreate 5 climactic zones of the Americas, which is pretty cool being across the street from the botanical gardens and insectarium, it is working out ok.

I just have a hard time finding justification for massive sums spent on a two week event, but I have a soft spot for Nadia Comaneci’s perfect ten score and that of Bruce Jenner, who later in life entertained us with other performances…

[Danny]

Atlanta got the 1996 Olympics and at the time Atlanta was still the ghetto slump. That's until Billionaire Ted Turner and Coca Cola Company convince them That Atlanta is a city of future. Almost 30 years later. Downtown Atlanta boomed, Buckhead in Atlanta's Northside is a skyscraper paradise and gentrification in most inner-city hoods was in full swing.

I went to Atlanta in 2022 with my friend and see how Downtown Atlanta changed right before my eyes. What do Detroit's future would be like if we got the Olympics? Jobs, jobs, jobs and a Downtown Skyline that will look like Buckhead in 50 years filled the crystal tower high scrapers. And a diverse city for ethnic and regional development. The Olympics can change a city and a nation in an instant.

But it's too late for Detroit.

[Henry Whalley]

LOL, after 'liberation' the entire U.S. will look like that.

[Zacha341]

^ It already looks like that in say Kensington, PA...

[CassTechGrad]

[Henry Whalley]

Francouzska spojka - Unione Corse - Wikipedia