Thanks, but no thanks. Emphasis on the no. Residents of the city of Hamburg, Germany, narrowly rejected the port city's bid to host the 2024 Olympics in a public referendum on Sunday. The opposition to the Games took the election with 51.6 percent of the vote, with 48.4 percent in favor of hosting.

The most to host. The bribes for sites. The pay-to-bring-play. The nicknames for the distasteful industry that has become the site selection process for international-level sports events has awakened once again the discussion about having permanent sites for those events.

Sports commissioner? Think of a term with a more international flavor when it comes to Canada. The City of Windsor, Ontario recently voted to hire a Sports Tourism Czar to concentrate on attracting more events and tourist dollars to the city.

It happens at NCAA March Madness. At the World Series. Even at the Olympics. It's rampant and it's ugly and it's costing a lot of money to fight. And unfortunately, it's a fight the public either doesn't know, or doesn't care about, but sports planners need to.

While many cities have an agenda to lure more dollars into their economy, they are often unwilling to do so at the expense of already-burned taxpayers. Economic development groups are becoming increasingly creative in finding ways to finance projects inside the city limits using revenue that originates outside the city limits. Case in point: Appleton, Wisconsin.

The Professional Rugby Organization (PRO Rugby) announced the formation of the first professional rugby league. Exclusively sanctioned by USA Rugby and World Rugby, its competitions will begin in April 2016, in time for the Summer Olympics.