2016 Summer Olympics - Ready or not, here we come!!

[bigblue_dl]

Re: 2016 Summer Olympics - Ready or not, here we come!!

The best thing that could happen is if it is a complete disaster. Maybe a few disasters will get the IOC to figure out that the system is broken. But, probably not, their heads are too far up their asses.

[The Rube]

Re: 2016 Summer Olympics - Ready or not, here we come!!

The best thing that could happen is if it is a complete disaster. Maybe a few disasters will get the IOC to figure out that the system is broken. But, probably not, their heads are too far up their asses.

Au contraire. Their wallets are too fat.

[bigmrg74]

Re: 2016 Summer Olympics - Ready or not, here we come!!

Au contraire. Their wallets are too fat.

Yeah, but what happens if an all out shibbyshow happens at Rio and all of a sudden nobody is exactly throwing out bribes to host the games in a hole in the ground? The games getting passed between USA/Canada, Western Europe, and a few of the brighter outposts of Asia might not be such a bad idea for a while.

[bigblue_dl]

Re: 2016 Summer Olympics - Ready or not, here we come!!

Yeah, but what happens if an all out shibbyshow happens at Rio and all of a sudden nobody is exactly throwing out bribes to host the games in a hole in the ground? The games getting passed between USA/Canada, Western Europe, and a few of the brighter outposts of Asia might not be such a bad idea for a while.

Any sane city wouldn't want the games, they're an economic nightmare.

[Kepler]

Re: 2016 Summer Olympics - Ready or not, here we come!!

Any sane city wouldn't want the games, they're an economic nightmare.

Cities don't want the games. IOC officials bribe city officials, who impoverish their taxpayers. The connected parties get rich on kickbacks, the middle class pays, and the poor lose their social services.

The grand alliance of business and government in the enrichment of the 1% at the expense of everyone else.

Neoliberalism. It's the future.

[FadeToBlack&Gold]

Re: 2016 Summer Olympics - Ready or not, here we come!!

Cities don't want the games. IOC officials bribe city officials, who impoverish their taxpayers. The connected parties get rich on kickbacks, the middle class pays, and the poor lose their social services.

The grand alliance of business and government in the enrichment of the 1% at the expense of everyone else.

Neoliberalism. It's the future.

Future? In this country, I'd say it's the present.

[FreshFish]

Re: 2016 Summer Olympics - Ready or not, here we come!!

Any sane city wouldn't want the games, they're an economic nightmare.

It seems a bit weird to me that they have all the competitions in the same place. We do live in the 21st century now. Distribute swimming to one part of the world, wrestling and weightlifting to another, track and field to a third, etc. Yeah, there's no procession and there's a problem of where to put the torch (actually, the latter is not a problem: have the sports move in progression and have the torch move along with them). or do the same idea, but in one big country: have different cities host different sports, based on the infrastructure they already have.

the Los Angeles Olympics of 1984 did not cost anything to run, net: they were so well-organized and used existing venues so well that they actually broke even.
(of course, that was before a lot of the more recent niche sports were added).

[St. Clown]

Re: 2016 Summer Olympics - Ready or not, here we come!!

It seems a bit weird to me that they have all the competitions in the same place. We do live in the 21st century now. Distribute swimming to one part of the world, wrestling and weightlifting to another, track and field to a third, etc. Yeah, there's no procession and there's a problem of where to put the torch (actually, the latter is not a problem: have the sports move in progression and have the torch move along with them). or do the same idea, but in one big country: have different cities host different sports, based on the infrastructure they already have.

the Los Angeles Olympics of 1984 did not cost anything to run, net: they were so well-organized and used existing venues so well that they actually broke even.
(of course, that was before a lot of the more recent niche sports were added).

If you distribute the games across a large nation, continent or even the world, they lose their big-event status and just become a series of small events and get as much attention as the annual world cup event of whichever sport nobody cares except for that every fourth year.

The IOC just has to come to grips with the idea, which will be in about 20 years, that they need to stop demanding so much of the bidding cities. It'll mean less in their pockets than they get currently, but at least their positions will still have a reason to exist because cities who could actually make them happen would actually have an interest in hosting them and the focus will return to the athletes, where it belongs.

[joecct]

...the Los Angeles Olympics of 1984 did not cost anything to run, net: they were so well-organized and used existing venues so well that they actually broke even.
(of course, that was before a lot of the more recent niche sports were added).

The LA games did not have to deal with the astronomical (but probably needed) security costs post 9/11.

[cF[Authentic]]

Re: 2016 Summer Olympics - Ready or not, here we come!!

If you distribute the games across a large nation, continent or even the world, they lose their big-event status and just become a series of small events and get as much attention as the annual world cup event of whichever sport nobody cares except for that every fourth year.

The IOC just has to come to grips with the idea, which will be in about 20 years, that they need to stop demanding so much of the bidding cities. It'll mean less in their pockets than they get currently, but at least their positions will still have a reason to exist because cities who could actually make them happen would actually have an interest in hosting them and the focus will return to the athletes, where it belongs.

If the games were held in 5 cities in France, would anyone notice it's not "one big event?" Space it out evenly, have TV coverage just like there is now and nobody will know the difference. Even if it's in the US, have Denver and Salt Lake City co-host the winter olympics. You have more than enough current venues for everything, outside of adequate housing for athletes in Denver.

[bigblue_dl]

Re: 2016 Summer Olympics - Ready or not, here we come!!

There's no point in changing the format, like holding it in different cities. They just need to accept that they aren't going to get all new facilities. Just go back to a Salt Lake City, or go back to Sydney, those cities have hosted in the recent past, they have almost all of the facilities needed. Hell, start bidding it out in 2 games packs, the return trip makes it more economically feasible to build a new facility. Say, you get 2020, and 2036 in a pack, so they're not back to back.

[dxmnkd316]

Re: 2016 Summer Olympics - Ready or not, here we come!!

This seems sadly all too fitting and representative of the entire 2016 games...

http://gizmodo.com/brazil-just-shot-...cot-1782414344

[Kepler]

Re: 2016 Summer Olympics - Ready or not, here we come!!

This seems sadly all too fitting and representative of the entire 2016 games...

http://gizmodo.com/brazil-just-shot-...cot-1782414344

Maybe they could raise awareness of endangered species by using a similar but non-endangered animal?

Or maybe not parade them around in front of the monkey people at all?

[FreshFish]

Re: 2016 Summer Olympics - Ready or not, here we come!!

If the games were held in 5 cities in France, would anyone notice it's not "one big event?"

You mean, something like the current European soccer championships in France, or the current Copa America Centenario in the US? You mean like those "one big event" hosted in multiple cities? or the World Cup of soccer?

[ticapnews]

If the games were held in 5 cities in France, would anyone notice it's not "one big event?" Space it out evenly, have TV coverage just like there is now and nobody will know the difference. Even if it's in the US, have Denver and Salt Lake City co-host the winter olympics. You have more than enough current venues for everything, outside of adequate housing for athletes in Denver.

Part of the draw of the Olympics is that I can go to Track one day and swimming the next. You can do that in Europe because travel is so much easier there. You aren't going to have swimming in NYC and expect people to hop a plane to Dallas or Phoenix for track. However because it is more compact and the rail system is so advanced that you can easily make most trips around European countries that is a plausible to have multiple cities serve as hosts but you couldn't do that anywhere else.