Quote:
Originally Posted by Don B.
P.S. Atlanta is way bigger than Phoenix. Atlanta's metro population is almost 6 million, we are barely past 4 million, and their per capita income is considerably higher, resulting in a gross economic footprint that is almost twice the size of Phoenix, if not more.
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Its funny how you always find a way to word things negatively about Phoenix lately. They're "almost" at 6 and we're "barely" past 4. What was the Atlanta area's population in '96? I can't seem to find any good info on it quickly but Im sure it was less than where Phoenix will be in 2024.
Further Georgia's 2nd City, Augusta (#95 at 534,218) is significantly smaller MSA than Tucson (#52 at 1,012,018). Though Georgia on a whole is considerably large (by about 3.2M) a lot of that is rural/small town population that Id assume (just guessing here) has less disposable income. Phoenix is very easy to travel to from LA, SD, LV and ABQ and all of those areas are growing rapidly and will continue to through 2024, like Glynnjamin mentioned it would of course have to be a regional effort.
Further the Phoenix MSA is almost the exact size of the Sydney metroplex, bigger than all of Catalonia and about the size of Catalonia and Madrid combined, bigger than Montreal currently and certainly much bigger than that city was in 76.
So looking only at a raw population number isn't really telling the whole story, Phoenix and Arizona are certainly large enough (though on the smaller side now, but likely more on the average size by 2024) population wise. The Census Bureau predicted at one time a 64% increase in Arizona's population between 2000 and 2020, lets say thats way too aggressive and go with just a more conservative 40% that would put us at over 7 million which seems like a considerably large enough number to me.
You're right about Atlantas superior per capita income and economic base, but its not like per capita income is exactly through the roof in places like Beijing or Rio. Plus you have to think if Phoenix shooting for the Olympics in 2024 or whenever as part of a plan to help grow things like that, it would mean more jobs in areas we're already strong (construction, tourism) and new jobs in white collar fields like marketing.
No city thats not an Alpha World City is going to be a perfect fit for the Olympics in its present form, but why should the Olympics go to some place like LA or NY again? Seems kinda lame to me but thats just a personal opinion.
The real downside to Phoenix is the heat, thats concern #1-10 in my book, if you can find ways through scheduling, stadium and infrastructure design, city wide shade programs, etc to deal with that, then you're cooking. Phoenix already has world class (and I do mean world class) athletic facilities and Arizona already has proven it can throw a big party and is great w/ tourism, lets just hope guys like John Junker and Jerry Colangelo live long enough and have the vision to get the ball rolling on something like this.