EDITORIAL: America doesn’t need the Olympics

Boston bailed out of its bid for the 2024 Summer Olympics on Monday, ending a seven-month courtship that was more costly, dysfunctional and embarrassing than the reality TV series "The Bachelorette." Taxpayers across New England breathed sighs of relief.

Beantown never should have entered the contest to begin with, but at least it had the good sense to say no to a lousy proposal. The process of awarding the Olympics is so corrupt, so fundamentally broken, no American city should want any part of it — especially Reno, which for more than a decade has pursued the chance to submit a formal Winter Games bid.

Unfortunately, the U.S. Olympic Committee appears eager to forward a new American nomination for the 2024 Games by a Sept. 15 deadline. Los Angeles, one of the cities Boston beat earlier this year for the U.S. bid, is the new front-runner for the chance to be fleeced. Here's some advice for L.A.: Put on your track spikes and run the other way. Fast.

USOC officials have the same sense of entitlement that characterizes the International Olympic Committee. As reported by the Boston Globe, the USOC had been pressuring Boston Mayor Martin Walsh to make his city's taxpayers the final backstop for cost overruns and revenue shortfalls. Boston residents mounted substantial opposition to the city's bid precisely because they didn't want to be stuck with the bill, and the cuts to city services or higher taxes that would necessarily follow. Mr. Walsh wisely refused to provide such a guarantee, so Boston bowed out.

Why do Olympic organizers seek such support from taxpayers? Because Olympic Games are not economically viable. In fact, they're boondoggles of the highest order. No amount of TV revenue, corporate sponsorships and overpriced ticket sales can cover the cost of lard imposed by greedy Olympic officials and their cronies, who demand over-the-top VIP treatment and expensive new venues and infrastructure wherever they go — without paying for anything.

The 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia, cost an estimated $51 billion, much of which will be repaid by Russian taxpayers. The 2016 Summer Games somehow were awarded to Rio de Janeiro — over Chicago and other better-suited cities — and now the crime-plagued, heavily polluted Brazilian city is so far behind in preparations that some Olympic venues likely won't be finished in time for the competition. No one is surprised.

On Friday, the IOC will vote on the host city for the 2022 Winter Games. Only two cities submitted bids: Beijing, which gets almost no snow, and Almaty, Kazakhstan. Coincidentally, citizens in those two kleptocracies won't have a choice in who pays for the Olympics. Hey, repressive regimes get stuff done!

Corruption loves company. Until the IOC cleans up its act and starts staging games that pay for themselves, the United States doesn't need another Olympics.