Ely Puts in a Bid for 2016 Summer Olympics

This story actually broke yesterday, but with it being April Fool's day, who would have actually believed it. Turns out, it is 100% true.

The little town of Ely, MN, better known for the International Wolf Center and Blueberry Festival has put in an actual bid to host the 2016 summer Olympic games.

The website for the bid has links to their Facebook group page, and to petition you can sign to show your support, but for right now they are asking that you "Send love, not money," stating that they "Are doing fine for now."

Listening to the news coming from a Saint Cloud radio station, the Mayor of Ely was asked how he plans to raise the billions of dollars needed to build all of the infrastructure needed for the summer games. He replied by saying that "the US Government seems to be in a giving mood lately. We will just stand in line with our hand out, just like everyone else." He also added that the could raise money with "a few meat raffles."

If you head over to the site, you can watch a press conference and you can see that the people involved are definitely having fun with this, but that they did seriously put in a bid for the games. When asked where they would bring the International Olympic Committee, should they decide to consider Ely and visit, they answered, "To all the cool places." You really need to go watch the video, so i will not post any more of it. Just go watch it. It's classic.

The organizing committee also has a blog - Ely 2016, and can be followed on Twitter by clicking here.

Congrats to all involved with this. You have drawn the attention of the entire world, even if none of it is all that serious. I for one, will be pulling for you.

-Buddha

For those of you reading outside Minnesota, Ely is 244 miles North / Northeast of Minneapolis. Here is a very generic map to give you perspective: