In the early 2000s, Baltimore and D.C. made a joint bid to host the Olympics in 2012. We were passed over by the U.S. Olympic Committee in favor of New York (which, of course, eventually lost out to London). One problem with the bid: there wasn’t enough infrastructure. We lacked in hotel rooms, transportation, and so on.
The other problem was our branding of the effort as “Washington-Baltimore 2012,” a move that Visit Baltimore CEO Tom Noonan says had bad mojo, seeing as two-city Olympic bids have always failed.
That’s why the bid for the 2024 Summer Olympics that would take place in Baltimore, Washington, College Park, Annapolis, and Northern Virginia is being branded “DC 2024.”
I, for one, hope it’s successful. Not just because Olympics held in U.S. cities have a history of being profitable, but because the cross-city cooperation might just inspire a little more regional camaraderie, which is something it seems like we could use lately.
