Article

Abstract

Why a book about an Olympics that never actually occurred? The reason, as Adam Berg’s terrific book illustrates, is that there is a lot to be learned about growth and resistance to growth by examining how and why a city pursues the Olympics—even an Olympics that never was. Berg’s carefully crafted narrative tells the story of how Denver pursued the 1976 Olympic Games, how the city won the International Olympic Committee’s (IOC) bidding contest, and how and why opposition emerged that ultimately led to successful referenda, both state and citywide, preventing public funds from being used to host the Games. Although this book is a case study of a single American city, it does a masterful job of illuminating how Olympic bids come together, how these bids are intricately intertwined in local politics, how opponents can emerge, and how the politics of urban growth plays out in the American context…