Hear Me Out...Any takers to host the Olympics?

It's important to enjoy the little things in life, whether that's the crazy stories coming out of Florida (and I'm not talking about the recount, I'm talking about all the weird things done by insane people living in that swampy mess of a state. If you're looking for a fun follow on Twitter, @_FloridaMan is one of the best) or the latest and greatest in conspiracy theories.

My current favorite conspiracy theory is the fires burning in California are all part of a nefarious plan by the California High-Speed Rail System. The plan involves (in Dr. Evil's voice) lasers shot from space or planes from Area 51, that start these fires so they can clear the way for said rail system. (I really want to meet these people who believe this stuff because I have a once-in-a-lifetime offer for them. It involves a down on his luck Nigerian prince and full-proof funnel-not a pyramid scheme-system.)

Of the many little things in life that I enjoy, I love it when people get wise to scammers. It's even better when the scammers start complaining and throwing a fit when they can't sucker people as well as they used to.

This scenario is beginning to happen with the International Olympic Committee (IOC). Cities are getting wise to their ruse and giving a hard pass to hosting the Olympics. The brilliant citizens of Calgary voted down a bid to host the 2026 Winter Olympics. Now only two cities remain in bidding for 2026, Stockholm, Sweden, and a joint bid between two Italian cities, Milan and Cortina d'Ampezzo.

Calgary is the latest in a long line of cities to withdraw their bid due to low public support and/or the excessive demands of the IOC. The Summer Games in 2024 and 2028 were essentially selected by default because the only two cities were bidding, Paris and Los Angeles, and they were the only cities bidding for '28 as well.

Avoiding the embarrassment of having only one city bid on the '28 Games, the IOC worked out a deal to give Paris the '24 Games and L.A. the '28 Games.

Hosting the Olympics is ridiculously expensive and many cities are still trying to pay off their debts. After hosting in '76, Montreal finally paid off all their Olympic debt in 2006.

Rio has been the poster child of when hosting the Olympics goes wrong. As their Olympics approached, they were in a full-blown economic meltdown and the Rio Games only made things worse. Many of the venues built for the Games sit empty, almost as if a Chernobyl-esque event hit that part of the city. And all the infrastructure promises, like clean waterways, made by Rio officials have been broken. They're definitely worse off since hosting and it will take decades for Rio to pay off their Olympic debts.

As bad as things were in Rio, it did help shine a light on just how greedy and uncaring the IOC is. They just kind of shrugged their shoulders as more and more reports painted a dysfunctional operation in Rio.

Eventually, with added pressure and cities withdrawing their bids, the IOC saw their gold vein beginning to dry. So they've announced they're going to make sure that host cities are better equipped to maintain many of these venues and they'll work better with easing some of the financial burdens.

As proof that they're more concerned about their host cities' wellbeing, they propped up Tokyo as a responsible host city who set a strict budget of $7 billion. You might want to sit down for this next part. Tokyo is already over budget by $18 billion, and guess who gets to foot about 80 percent of that bill? That's right, the IOC, wait...no that's wrong. The correct answer is the taxpayers.

Of course, the IOC did push back that Tokyo was over budget and said not all of those expenses were Olympic related. Many blame the Olympic deadlines on why so many cities go over budget, but there's a solution to figuring out the Olympic hosting conundrum.

It's going to sound rough and unfair but cities like L.A. and Paris with their infrastructure and financial means should only host the Olympics. I'm not trying to be an elitist jerk but it's the truth. There needs to be a rotation between L.A., Paris, Tokyo.

Having a rotation with established criteria for host cities will help many of these places from going comically over budget. No more having cities spend themselves into oblivion to meet deadlines and having venues, that once hosted lively and historic events, sit and crumble as they turn into monuments, like the Roman Colosseum.

Instead of hosting the Olympics once every two to three decades, a city can host every 12 years and not have to drop billions upon billions prepare. Then say London or some other city wants to get in on the act, as long as they meet the criteria, they can replace a city in the rotation if one of them wants to bow out.

Will the IOC make as much money this way? Not a chance but with everyone seeing through their sham they might not have a choice. And with the IOC now in check, we can focus on the billion-dollar NFL, NBA, NHL and MLB owners who try to hold cities hostage by forcing them to pay for a new stadium.