Birmingham 2016!

Well, just as the Olympics are about to get started, our own fair city has been designated as an official “Olympic partner.” Whoo! Alright! Yay!

Wait, what does that mean?

According to the Inquirer article, being a “community partner” means… uhh… it means that the Olympic committee knows you’re a city in America. Also, this has “no bearing” on the city’s possible Olympic bid.

After seeing a list of other sites that are possibly bidding for the olympics and are also Olympic partners, well, it seems like Philadelphia is the annoying kid who kept whining until they made him an Olympic partner:

Besides Philadelphia, the list of U.S. candidates is likely to include Chicago, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Houston and Washington. By the way, Houston became an Olympic community partner last fall, Chicago last month, and San Francisco is about to join the ranks. [...] The community partnership program, which also includes Birmingham, Ala., and central Oklahoma, is a relatively new venture for the USOC.

Ooh, Birmingham or Philadelphia! How will they decide which place to hold the Olympics at? Erhm.

Philadelphia named Olympic ‘partner’ [Inky]
Nov. 10, 2005: A (new) way to lose money? Count me in!